It was impossible to separate the quickest Sussex Cup and Regency heat winners and that has been repeated for the semi final. Droopys Clue’s 29.56 is the quickest since Smallmead’s 29.54 back in 2020. Unbeaten Cooladerry Dust found three lengths on his 41.72 run last week to land the quickest Regency semi.
While the MWD Partnership had mixed luck at Hove, New Destiny was blazing the trail at Monmore with a 37.59 run for the 630 metre course, which may just be somewhere near her ultimate distance. Her 37.59 run was five spots slower than Aayamza Sydney’s quickest of the year. By means of further comparison, the two quickest times in 2023 were Fromposttopillar’s 37.36 and Droopys Clue’s 37.40.
Monmore’s Aero Sacundai started as the ante post favourite for the BetGoodwin Pall Mall and was the quickest of the semi final winners in 26.60. He will presumably start favourite for the final though connections will be fully aware that he only just sees out the 450 metres and continues to leave lengths on the track after apparently being taught how to take the first bend by someone from the Oxford Cheetahs speedway team.
Sunday’s big decider was the Cat One Ladbrokes Champion Hurdle. Congratulations to connections of Nunhead Shiv. In reality it was little more than a graded performance but fair play to connections. Two years ago, Shiv was running in D2/A5 at Hove. She has been disqualified and marked ‘awkward’, but as a veteran, has won a £10K final. Fair play. Performance of the Week though has to be the current belt holder Punk Rock Athena who completed a six/eight bend treble in 56.75.
Leighas Dream was one of the most frequent selections in this feature last year, thanks to runs primarily at Doncaster and Nottingham. We can now add Newcastle to her CV after a flying 28.08 run in the semi finals of the ARC Angel of the North. To put the run into some persective, the last hound to go quicker was Droopys Expert who recorded 27.98 and 28.00 back in 2017.
An hour and a half later and 300 miles further south, Leigha’s big brother Dashing Dude was back strutting his stuff at Swindon after drawing a blank at Oxford. It was though he had never been away with a sizzling 15.18 for the 262m trip. That was the fourth fastest time of the year. To go with his first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth fastest!
On the subject of sprinters, former Janssens minor open racer Slick Serenity has been turned into one of the best two-benders at Yarmouth by Jason Bloomfield. On Monday, he clocked the fastest 277m run of the year, 16.16. He extended his local record to six wins and two seconds in his last eight outings with a 16.27 open win on Saturday. Another mention too for John Mullins’ Swift Depot who proved the recent 27.33 run was no fluke with a 27.38 open win. That is three in a row for the Ian Greaves bred black.
And more sprinters. . . with no outstanding run at Romford on Friday we will stick with the defending POW Tullymurry Dylan even though his winning time was more than three lengths slower than last week’s run. That completed a 141/1 treble for Maxine Locke’s black and white.
It was 2:1 to Aghaburren Beau going into the best race of the week at Nottingham which took place on Monday. But punters gambled that Sambar Kian was returning to his best form and they were proved spot on as he produced arguably the best performance of his career, a 29.53 (+20) run, which was also the fastest time of the year.
Open racing returned to Suffolk Downs on Monday with the pick of the open winners possibly being 716m winner Intrepidity. However, the selection is Anne Kirby’s Conri. While not the most prolific winner at the track, he tends not to be beaten when he leads. His nine length 23.82 (-10) run was comfortably quicker than the 388m open winners on the same day.
The Harlow selection might divide opinion with Over Easy clocking the fastest time of the week when winning an A2 in 26.39. Although Essjay John was six spots slower, his win came in A1 company and with last week’s POW Tax You Tonight in his wingmirrors.
At Central Park, Princess Athena was unable to defend her title when beaten at very short odds-on in the stayer’s final. Th most impressive four bend winner on the day, and quickest of the week, was Dave Puddy’s A1 winner Bluejig Jane with a new PB of 29.32.
There are few tracks with more competitive or consistent top heat races than Perry Barr. There were two on Saturday’s card. The first featured regular POW winner Good Spark (2/1), Mt Heaton Boyo (13/8f) and Moyar Brow (5/2), though all three were beaten by 9/2 chance Scarsdale Pronto in 28.56. The other semi featured Swizz Star (10/11f) and Tullymurry Jenga (2/1) and the favourite duly did the business in 28.24.
There might be a tendency to assume that the Doncaster selection would emerge from their Saturday night opens. Usually it does, but not so this week. Go back a week ago, and Ballymac Canter was making just his second appearance since being KO’d three months ago. A 13/8 chance in B1, Jimmy Gaskin’s fawn, who is the second quickest sprinter at the track this year (16.69) is now also the second fastest over the 450m trip following a 27.38 run.
Sunderland regulars have seen a bunch of sub27.30 runs this week, though the quickest of them all was Sleepy Millie in a Sunday A1 which she won by almost five lengths in 27.00. Dean Blackbird’s ex Lifford/Derry runner has been promising a run like this without delivering. It will be interesting to see if she kicks on following this confidence booster.
When times are close, we will quite often choose the slightly slower clock when it is achieved against tougher opposition. But as decent as Naochra’s A1 win at Pelaw was when clocking 25.67, he was still two lengths adrift of Emilys Superstar when she beat an A2 field in 25.51.
There was a close call for the Sheffield selection with Rocking Taylor (280m-15.82), Acomb Felix (500m-28.66) and Farneys Willie (660m-39.12). There would be little between them on comparative times. Felix got the nod after, arguably, beating the toughest opposition, including the useful Sean Davy pair Stay Large and Epic Gold. It was also a fourth consecutive win over course and distance for the defending POW.
From South Yorks to West Yorks and there was so little between half a dozen hounds clocking times between 27.87 and 28.00 at Kinsley. So we’ve decided to opt for the youngster Bequest who was one of them. Still only a November pup – the youngest hound featured this week – Dave Fradgley’s white and black has won two of his three races to date including a recent A4 in 27.91.
It turned out to be ‘track record Sunday’ but none was more impressive than Savana Jackpot with a 16 length win over the 712m course where he clocked a mind boggling 42.02. Bear in mind, the previous clock was Coonough Crow’s 42.43. Remember, this is a hound who had been beaten in his last 10 races from 500-942m, though significantly, his last 500m win was over the Derby course in 28.78. Go figure!
Meanwhile there was a double clock event at Valley and another ‘impossible to separate’ issue. Different Speed was 11 spots inside the previous 260m clock. He is the most prolific open race winner in the country and has won 16 or his last 17 races at the track. Meanwhile over four bends, Unwanted Present became the first hound to break 28.00 (the old flapping clock was 28.48) with a 27.97 run. The half sister to the fast but oh-so-quirky Fridays Eske, has won seven of her eight races since arriving from Ireland.
