There are all kinds of parameters to a Performance of the Week, but producing your best time, off you best sectional, against your toughest opponents, after showing six weeks of resilience and consistency, must be a pretty good benchmark. Gaytime Nemo ticked every box at Towcester on Saturday.
The dog with seemingly the least early pace of the Holland trio produced easily his quickest sectional (4.08) and his 28.89 (-10) was a new PB.
You don’t have to be the fastest in the competition, or even in the race. Being fastest on the night is all that matters. The 2023 English Derby winner Gaytime Nemo.
On Friday night, the serial POW at Sunderland, Ballybough Mags landed the ARC Puppy Trophy with a box-to-beam win in 27.01. The time doesn’t reflect her ability, she has a best of 26.77. However, given that, we’re going for the quicker and younger, Links Dasher. Tom Heilbron’s 28.73 (-10) Clonmel winner made it third time lucky with a 26.62 run on the supporting card.
With Pelaw’s track champion scheduled to run at Bellmore Chief (withdrawn), puppy Glenvale Bjorn took full advantage with an easy win in A2 on Sunday. He clocked 25.73, some 61 spots faster than any other winner on the day.
The much travelled Ballymac Emo is the Nottingham selection after winning A2 in a faster time than Monday night’s opens. The former Newcastle A5/Sheffield A2 runner, who has 28.72 open race winning form over the 480 course, was 103 spots slower for the extra 20 metres when setting a new PB.
On the face of it, the 28.92 open race win for Barnside Tigger (one of a quartet of Wildcat offspring on the chart) at Sheffield wouldn’t pull up too many trees. But for a dog contesting only his sixth race in the last nine months, it will certainly have made the night for visiting trainer Sean Parker. Hopefully he can soon reproduce the 27.64 and 29.64 form for the two four-bend distances at his home track, Doncaster.
Meanwhile at the Stainforth venue, the clock was of minimal use this week. Technically, In The Form was the fastest 483 winner of the week in 29.84 (-10) in A1 on Monday. But there are ‘top heats and top heats’. On Sunday Janice Simpson’s brindle went to traps at 14-1 and finished last behind Sue Watson’s 21 month old Ballymac Levy (5-2) who was winning for the sixth time in his last seven races.
But Levy wasn’t the only one showing off in Yorkshire on the day. At Kinsley, none could match Levy’s little sister Ballymac Wynett who clocked the fastest 462 of the week for Bev Heaton.
At 7.24 on Wednesday, Front Mali appeared to have secured his umpteenth POW vote for Harlow after landing a 415m open in 26.16. But just two races later, the defending champ Barnfield Charm landed arguably a tougher A5 contest in 26.14. A completed hat-trick for the Hurlock hound in the fastest clock of the year to date. A special mention too for the golden oldie Signet Mafia completing a D1 hat-trick in career outing no.75.
No opens at Suffolk Down this week and the cream of the graded races was a competitive S1 for which recent open winner Snowy Prince was made favourite. But it was Jim Daly’s former Crayford S1 runner Millview Black who never saw a rival in a very respectable 34.76 (-60). That is seven from her last ten outings and never out of the forecast places.
All of which puts Black into ‘Droopys Biggy territory’. That is now 10 of his last 12 for Angela Harrison’s 2023 Newcastle Graded Greyhound of the Year (he must have won it already surely?). That tally includes four opens, A1 and handicaps running from scratch. He only started outright favourite in two of them and includes SPs of 9-2 and 7-1.
Hove’s defending POW Icaals First would have decent grounds to hang onto his title after landing another Springbok trialstake in 30.39 (-30) on Thursday. But he is just shaded by Seamus Cahill’s Lightfoot Falcon who escaped trouble in a messy race where Wasthouse Woosh and Noelles Perfetto were both KO’d. However Falcon’s winning time was well worthy of the win, 42.17 on going rated at -45. The fastest time of the year is 42.07 jointly held by Wastehouse Woosh (on -30) and Bubbly Scorcher (N). Roll on the Regency!
Swindon POW Cuckoo Fund (28.32) continued his winning streak on Thursday, but was ‘out timed’ by his puppy kennelmate Coppice Warrior with a 28.28 run. The £12K Towcester Sales purchase looks destined for at least another two bends.
The opening round of the Stadium Bookmakers Pall Mall is just 12 days away and on recent local form, none is going betting than Matt Dartnall’a Ivanexile who followed up his 26.88 POW run with a 26.87 POW run on Friday.
On the same night, Essex boy Bombay Zero further enhanced his claim as a Pall Mall likely with a 23.67 run over the 400 metre course. Paul Young’s pup – a litter brother of Champion Open Unraced winner Carrick Fergie – has already trialled at Cowley in 27.06.
Three months ago, Kellsboro Ava was running in A8 company at Romford. On Saturday, Jean Liles’ blue completed a Crayford four-timer when picking up a Crayford 380m open in 23.33.
There is a similar ‘horses for courses’ story for Salacres Blake whose first three trials over Towcester’s Derby course were 31.07, 31.07, 31.07. He eventually rose to A5 but with a string of ‘led to run-in’ comments. The switch to Henlow’s 460 was just the job and in his first race as an adult on Sunday night, the Peter Harnden trained black/white landed the A1 by six lengths in 27.57.
Central Park resumed racing earlier the same afternoon with the same dogs running from the same traps but over remeasured distances. None of us were too surprised to hear that the 480 trip was actually 491m. The fastest time over the new standard was Mandeville Toto (PB 29.55 actual time) with a 29.83 “TR” – some 133 spots off the original. As we saw at Oxford, it will take three or four months for the new surface to fully bed in, though it isn’t far away already! But we’re going for the day’s fastest sprinter, Rossa Rise. The D1 winner clocked 16.42 for the ‘new’ 277m – quicker than most of his previous runs, before going allowance. Interestingly, the track record is held by Troy Bella at 15.99. Yarmouth’s clock, for the identical distance, was recently broken by Farneys Trend in 15.90 (previously 16.02).
Crackaway Oxo didn’t find the Central Park 480 (491m) too tough when he won A1 and had a best calculated time of 29.12 last year. The Monmore 480 was well within his scope too as he clocked 28.35 in A2 company last week. (Things didn’t go so well on Saturday when he led the 630m open but was caught on the run-in and finished second)
With the East Anglian Challenge due to return to Yarmouth, Craig Morris’ Edwards put his name in the frame with a 27.57 open race win on Saturday night. If you were looking for some form of calibration, that is one spot quicker than last week’s POW clock, and one spot slower than Alberts Legacy’s FOY.
On the subject of winning times, Perry Barr had A1, A2, and A3 winning times of 28.74 on Saturday. Thankfully along came Bogger Lilly to put the matter beyond dispute with a 28.51 win – in A3.
