“We had 78 syndicate members there from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, plus one who had flown in from America. Ben Abrahams was on-line from Cambodia and on the phone to his mum in Ireland. There was a big crowd, a fabulous atmosphere, and when the roar went up when Apache trapped in front, it was the first time since the outbreak of Covid when I thought, ‘we’re back’.”

It is five years since the brilliant Bubbly Bluebird landed the Puppy Classic and two years since Bubbly Turbo landed their last Cat One (Henlow Derby), but the Champagne Club Syndicate, headed by Steve Fluin, were absolutely buzzing after Bubbly Apache landed the ARC Puppy Classic at Nottingham.

Unbeaten in his trialstake and two qualifying rounds, the Oct’19 son of Loughteen Blanco and Droopys Berry (Droopys Sydney-Droopys Sarafina) was opposed in the betting by the brilliant bitch puppy Coolavanny Aunty, and connections knew they would have to do everything right to take the £6,500 winner’s prize.

Fluin said: “I told the members that Apache had to do three things right to have any chance of winning. He would have to blast away and clear the two and four, use brilliant middle pace to go clear and from then on we all had to hold our breath. I don’t think I called it too badly; it is exactly what happened. It was always going to be tight. In my view there were several in that field that we will be hearing much more about in the future.”

Video available on the Star’s Youtube Channel

Apache, previously Droopys Touch, is appropriately named. Born and reared by Sean and Michael Dunphy at their kennels, he is an uncommonly rare example of Michael Dunphy losing his touch.

Steve said: “Michael phoned me up and said, ‘I have a nice puppy for you for the Romford Puppy Cup. He has loads of early but I don’t think he will stay. He should get 450, but not much more’

“Michael agreed to send him over and make an offer for him. He did 23.73 in his second trial and we soon had 100 wanting a share with another 20 on the waiting list. Michael wanted £20K for the dog. I told him that the dog wasn’t worth it if he was only a Romford dog. I offered him £10K.

“Michael suggested, ‘Make it 14, and I’ll give Youngy a drink. I told him ‘F*** Youngy! You can have 13, and that is what we agreed. And that is precisely what we syndicated him for (plus the thousand quid I gave Youngy).

“Anyway, Paul took a shine to Apache and one day said, I want to trial him at Towcester. I reminded him that the dog wouldn’t see out the 500 metres and he said, ‘well I think he will.’ He was right too, which is always bloody annoying.”

In fact, Apache went out of the Juvenile Classic in the first round, as a wide runner. It is the only defeat in his career to date.

Steve said: “It was soon obvious that he was really a middle and after some trials at Nottingham, we persuaded them to seed him middle and he hasn’t looked back. He will be trialing at Romford next week and then we go for the Puppy Cup.

“We’re back and loving it!”