‘Double headers’ – staging two Cat One events at the same time – are pretty much an Entain concept and in most cases, one competition outshines the other. Not so the Coral backed Olympic and Curtis/Ballyregan Memorial at Hove. Over four bends, King Memphis continues to build his reputation, outperforming local champion Hollow Man with the fastest 515 of the night is no mean feat. Over six bends, St.Leger winner Droopys Clue produced the fastest 740 of the year to date.
At Sheffield on Tuesday, Memphis’ brother, the Puppy Derby runner-up King Capaldi clocked the fastest heat win in the BGBF British Bred Derby. The early paced star of the litter has 11 wins in 14 career outings and will be a short priced favourite to reach his third Category One final tomorrow.
Despite a fabulous year, had you been asked to pick which of the brothers’ kennelmates would set a new Oxford 650m track record, Havana Top Note wouldn’t necessarily have been the selection. But the light brindle did just that on Friday night when removing kennelmate ‘Lover’ from the record books – for now at least – and this one wasn’t hand timed!
Last week there was a 37 spot disparity between Fabulous Terra and her oldest experienced kennelmate Romeo Top Gun at Towcester. But after Sunday’s Bet365 Puppy Oaks semi finals, the youngster had reduced the deficit to just 17 spots as she retained her unbeaten record from five races.
At Romford, Fabulous Terra’s littermate Romeo Firebrand became the fourth member of his litter to be included in this feature. The David Mullins trained brother of Puppy Cup 1&3 Romeos Crusade and Cypher clocked the only sub-24.00 run of the week with a 23.99 (-20) run.
Harlow staged a rare A2 on Wednesday where Courtneys Girl (well beaten in her last three A5s!) clocked the fastest time of the day, 26.26 (+20). However, the evening meeting produced an open race win for Front Alice, which was calculated to be three spots quicker. That was a three spot improvement on her previous outing when beaten nearly six by Bluejig Baron. As for Reasontobelieve’s debut on Friday . . .what to make of it? Contesting his third race at the track, with a fastest actual time of 27.16 last time out, he slooshed up in A3 in 26.15.
At sister track Valley, Glenmalure Flyer remains unbeaten since the track opened. Having won at 8-11f, 2-5f, 1-3f and 2-11f, he landed the Friday sprint open in 16.41 (-15) when returning at 4-11f.
Brennans Bambi was quickest over the Suffolk Downs 388m course on Thursday when landing an open in 24.04 (-30). In terms of overall performance though, Yahoo Megan gets it having beat a much superior field in 24.11 (similar going). Pat Janssens’ May pup has now won her last six.
Having had a great run, there were no Thursday opens at Swindon leaving a very tight call between three A2 winners for selection. The actual fastest was Distant Josh in 28.64 (-10). Maglass Sydney was also a narrow winner of his A2 in 28.84 (-20). But by virtue of the grader rating Saturday’s track as -50, Moreton Mischief’s 28.94, just nicks it. (Next quickest on the day was a 29.29 in A3)
The Nottingham track staff have had a particularly tough week of it having lost Monday’s meeting to a waterlogged track. By midweek, they were racing, though one of the graded events was won in 32.81!. But by Friday, they were well on top of it, and proven by Barry Denby’s Leighas Dream who was hugely impressive when taking an A1 in 29.75 (a difference of 306 spots between fastest and slowest winners on the week!).
Meanwhile the Denby kennel continue to plunder far and wide (well mainly Doncaster and Perry Barr). On Saturday night, the defending Doncaster Performer of the Week, Bellmore Cricket, extended his winning sequence to four with a 28.11 run in Brum.
Meanwhile Cricket’s Doncaster title was taken over by Onefordotsy in this week’s top A1. In her last 13 races, Paul Prior’s coloured bitch has eight wins and four seconds.
Monmore’s quickest run of the week, 28.46, was clocked by the Ian Greaves bred puppy Swift Reassure – her third win in five races. A mention too though for Paul Sallis’ British bred April puppy Skyfall Vega (Kilara Icon-El Nora) with a seven length 28.62 win in A5.
Wraysbury Diva loses her POW title despite picking up her fourth consecutive win at Newcastle on Thursday. To be fair, the front runner did her best to cope with the -50 going but clocked 29.29. One race earlier, Tom Heilbron unleashed his PGR All England Cup* hope Bogger Rambo who won his debut in 29.09. (*Entries close at noon today).
Race times have also been on the slow side on neighbours Sunderland where the fastest time of the week was a comparatively moderate 27.44 (last week’s POW clocked 26.86!). That belonged to the ex-Thurles runner Cash Trap who landed her first A1 with her fourth win in six outings.
Pelaw’s top performer was another daughter of Pestana, Annadown Cuddles. She produced the fastest run of the day in the highest grade race, A2 to make it six wins and two seconds in her last eight races over course and distance.
The Crayford selection rested on a couple of Holloway runners, Coppice Fox over 540mH and Razldazl Amanda over 714m. We’ve edged it to the hurdler on one line of reasoning. His 33.96 was just 14 spots short of his FOY, or only half a length away with going taken into account. By comparison, Amanda’s 45.41 wouldn’t make the top 20 over the (admittedly much more competitive) 714m.
There were three A1s at Yarmouth last week but Wednesday’s night’s was really an A1+ – featuring five hounds who have appeared in this feature at one stage or another. Paul Burr was trebly represented with Super Nova the 5-4f and the defending POW Swift Indigo priced up at 7-2. But it was the third member of the team, Roxys Bullet who led from box to beam in 27.90 (-10). Home bred Bullet hasn’t been the luckiest dog with injuries having shown tremendous potential as an 18 month old pup when winning in 27.74.
Sunday was a good day to be a wide at Central Park with four orange and four striped winners from a dozen races. Not that Lostrigg Paddy would have needed any assistance as he completed an A1 hat-trick in 29.66 (-20).
The last two additions to the chart came on Sunday night. Technically, Dairyhills Best landed the best race of the week at Kinsley when seeing off an A2 field. But the winner’s time (28.19) was disappointing despite a comparatively clear run. There were three quicker runs on the night including a 28.10 from five and a half year old Glengale Gav. So we’ve gone for Robert Fletcher’s Outback Abigail with a six length A3 win in 27.73.
There was a Fletcher at the thick of it at Henlow too. In assessing the going for Droopys Venus’ 28.10 open race win at -70, there were probably a few shrugs and blank expressions in the judge’s box (no comments necessary Ed!). But Steve Fletcher’s 29.45 Towcester winner was more than five lengths faster than the night’s next fastest open.
