BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

The Derby continues to dominate our thinking, and will for at least another month. Times were generally slower for the second round with Ballinabola Ed’s 29.07 on Friday best seen in context of being three lengths quicker than the next fastest heat winner (Signet Ace).

Meanwhile Monmore Puppy Derby third Farneys Buster – who exited the Towcester event in the first round – produced an impressive 500m run in juvenile company at Sheffield on Tuesday.

On Friday night Romford, Romford staged the heats of the Coral Coronation Stakes where three runners went below the 35.50 mark on going rated -20. Quickest of the trio was Jason Gornall’s Baby Bullet. From her last 11 races, on three different tracks, she has six wins and five second places.

Shelone Milo has been a prolific Romford open winner over both two and four bends. Until now though, he has never matched his 16.17 sprint form at Yarmouth with an equivalent win over four bends. That is no longer the case with his 27.68 A1 win being just two spots off the FOY.

We tend to concentrate on the 483m course at Doncaster, but it is a switch to six bends to acknowledge the 41.55 run by Easy Diablo, not only the quickest this year, but one spot inside Hather Daisy’s best in 2021. That’s six out of his last eight for Darren Fretwell’s dual distance brindle. We can usually expect to also see staying opens at Harlow on a Wednesday night. Not this week and it is left to Ushers Leo who had a whole string of previous POW winners behind him, notably the defending champ Lamorna Ollie, Susie Jezabelle and March On Henry.

Droopys Hooray was a length and a half behind Blackhouse Harry when he clocked the fastest graded run of the year (28.41) earlier in May. Since then Angela Harrison’s runner has recorded the second fastest A1 win, 28.46.

Only one hound broke the 24.00 mark at Suffolk Downs this week. He was Paul Steward’s Fenview Blue with a 23.83 run. Interestingly, although it was a personal best after 14 visits to the track, it was only 30 spots quicker than his first sighting of the course in an inter-track. Maybe not such a tricky place to run after all.

Meanwhile at sister track Henlow, three A1s on the same card were won in 27.70, 27.79 and 27.88. Quicker than all three though was Jason Bloomfield’s A2 winner Aayamza Earl. A 28.75 trialist last November, he has now found 1.10 seconds in his 16 Henlow races. Looking at his breeding, you would think he might stay on a bit further too!

Carla Hendy’s Gavins Rocco gets the award the most consistent runner on the table, alongside his Perry Barr selection. Last week he beat he beat Take My Hand by two lengths in the fastest time of the week, 28.46. Seven days later he beat Take My Hand by a length and a half in the fastest time of the week, 28.51. (Technically, the ‘most consistent’ award should go to Take My Hand. Her last five times: 28.65, 28.67, 28.82, 28.67, 28.63).

Overall, three hounds defended their titles this week starting with Stranger Things who has now won three of his last four top heats at Sunderland. While Gortroe Rainbow picked off a Kinsley A2 all-star line-up that included Glenvale Gav, Balltadhg Peg and Daves Missile for a third week in a row.

At the other extreme, the Crayford selection was almost impossible to choose. Saturday’s open race times were nothing out of the ordinary, the two maiden 540m opens were won in a slower time than the S4. With little else staking a claim, we’ll go for the sole A1 winner of the week, albeit in a modest clock, Kilbarry Nosense.

But the Hove A1 was a different proposition. Amaze Me Mel clocked a hugely promising 30.01 on his first look at the 500m course at 19 months old. Eight weeks, five races and a kilo of muscle later, Richard Rees’ youngster has a new PB after an impressive 29.44 on Saturday night.

Meanwhile at Monmore, Chris Jones’ recent intake Winterfield Duke built on some quality Nottingham performances (29.66-500) with a flying 28.27 for the standard. If his breeding looks familiar, it is because he is the fourth member of the same litter to be mentioned in this feature following Bluejib’s Turbo and Elsa (both Swindon) and Bluejig Badger (Pelaw). Defending champ Turbo lost his Swindon title on Sunday night though it did take a sub-28.00 run to do it. Headford Flash became the fifth member of the ’27 club’ this year.

Yet another littermate, Bluejig Royal, contested Pelaw’s feature race on Sunday. But he couldn’t live with Indian Black’s 25.97 run with defending champ Bellmore Chief in third.

Liffeyside Patsy who beat Indian Black when they last met in A1, but fared less well at Sunderland, continued his open race exploits at Nottingham on Monday. It was a successful raid with his 17.78 just three spots off Signet Goofy’s FOY.

The best sprint run of the week though was the FOY performances by Havana Class at Central Park. Only Troy Bella (15.99) has gone quicker in the last five years.

Finally – we will finish by calling out on one of our former honourees for what can only be described as . . . .well judge for yourself. Last September, Slamman Nights was feted in this feature for some amazing performances in A1 at Sunderland. A month later she was DQd for deliberate interference at the same track. On Saturday morning, she (T3) was running in her fifth race over hurdles. But if you are not absolutely certain about the difference between ‘a look’ and ‘a fight’, Ranger will demonstrate. Check her out at round the 3.30 mark