There might have been two Cat Ones and a Cat Two comp in action at Hove on Saturday, but surely nobody expects to see anything other than Space Jet as the selection of the week? Now well into pensionable age and running around 200 metres short of her ideal trip, she has been superbly prepared by Matt Dartnall. It will bring the house down in she was to win next week’s decider. Even if she doesn’t, she will be remembered as one of the stars of the decade.
What a double-header next Saturday with Hove competing for an audience with Oxford where Links Maverick was once again majestic in the semi finals. Now two years and two months old, he is starting to show the stamina that looked slightly suspect in the Monmore Puppy Derby. Would Bradys Bullet pick him up now over 480? Not so sure he would.
There would have been a realistic expectation that this week’s Towcester selection would be the fastest Juvenile Classic semi winner. In which case that would be Wrighty, completing a five-timer in 29.22. He might already have been under pressure from Frank Gray’s October pup Makeit Magical with a 43.27 (FOY 42.96). But then along came kennelmate Makeit For Terry, a January pup who had clocked 16.06 in his first ever sprint trial. Beaten in his first two outings, he made no mistake in a 500m maiden with a flying 29.19 run for the Derby course.
If you knew that there would be a 34.75 recorded for the Romford six bends on Friday, it would be a pretty fair bet that it would be the POW. But even Pepinthestep’s supporters might not have seen it coming from her. It is true that she has 28.11 Monmore form but she had been beaten in her last five Romford visits and her only win had come in 35.37. But it there on the result sheet, the fourth fastest 575 of the year, including a 13.40 sectional which is equal to the fifth fastest sprint in 2023.
All kind of options at Crayford on Saturday including a 23.21 for Twoathem (380), a 33.71 for Santas Supreme (540) and a 45.50 for Laughil Jess. Instead we’ve gone for last week’s Central Park POW Laughil Jess. Although the 33.91 was a bit slower than Supreme, that is six in a row and nine of her last ten for Dave Lee’s versatile white and black.
The torrential weather has made a mockery of times at Doncaster (and numerous other tracks this week) so we can dismiss the 31.76 winning time of Ballymac Levi as irrelevant. (That was his A1 winning time on Saturday with the A2 won in 32.22). But the time hides a recent streak of eight wins in his last nine races for Sue Watson’s pup whose brother De Lahdedah was in last week’s Irish POW selections after clocking the fastest 550 over the Irish Derby course at Shelbourne.
We are also going to ignore times at Pelaw where the fastest time of the day/week was the strong running Ballymac Stormi’s 27.02 (-70) in A3. She will no doubt now get the chance to take on A2 runners which was the highest grade on show this week. It featured last week’s 25.78 POW Mustang Tyson, though the testing ground probably just got the better of him as he was pipped on the line by Jaguar Pestana’s short head.
Similarly, Sunderland’s quickest run this week went to A5 winner Rossa Digger with a 10 length 27.09 (+20) win. (He’d also won his previous race, on similar going, in 27.85. Closest to him were dual 27.19 winners on Friday. But since once was in A3, and the other in A1, it wasn’t a tough call to go for the locally bred Witton Survivor.
The semi finals of the ARC Angel Of The North took place at Newcastle on Thursday where Greenwell Elle was quickest in the fastest time of the night, 28.80. But she is overlooked by Dubh Gasta with the fastest sprint of the year. Though we can’t ignore the 28.82 debut run of Coolavanny Mercy. It was only the second run of her career. The Shane O’Gorman bred, Angela Harrison trained 19 month old also won her Irish debut, and what a run that was! 28.32 at Limerick. A double underline in the notebook for this one.
It was a slam-dunk for the remarkable Goldies Perryman at Swindon after the Laurels runner-up clocked the fastest 476 of the year, 28.01 for career win 25 in 74 races (34%).
On Monday, Farneys Trend returned to Nottingham for the first time since clocking the year’s fastest sprint (17.53). But he found one too good on the night in the same of Yvonne Bell’s Bluejig Ophelia. The near 37kg blue had decent winning for at Dundalk but has found the Sunderland 450 on the taxing side. At Colwick Park though, his record is 2:2.
It is probably only a matter of time before Distant Hugo switches to six bends. In the meantime, the Draper runner is among the elite Sheffield A1 runners and saw off a decent field with some ease on Tuesday to clock a ‘top 10’ run of 28.68.
By means of comparison, there wouldn’t be much between Glideaway Bono’s 23.64 (380m) and Ferneys Willie’s 34.01 (548m) open wins at Suffolk Downs on Thursday. But using recent former as a tie-breaker, it has to go to Jim Daly’s ex-Kilkenny runner who was completing a four-timer.
Swift Loves, the fastest lady at Yarmouth this year (27.52) was in a action on Saturday night and won for the third time in her last four races. Her winning time was a very decent 28.02. But it was still 22 spots off the fastest time of the night from Jason Bloomfield’s A2 winner Slider McCoy, who just happens to be her big brother!
Leighas Dream has already picked up two Perry Barr Performance Of The Week selections and was 4-9 to take home the match ball on Saturday. But the Yorkshire lass Acomb Irene had other ideas and a one length advantage after a great buckle. That’s a first POW in Brum to go with three bagged at Sheffield.
Fabulous Azurra has two Cat One wins at Sheffield but on Saturday night was in the West Midlands for a 480m open at Monmore. A month away from her fourth birthday, she looks as good as new clocking 28.25 (-10) on the same card where Stevie Knows recorded 28.48 and Whyaye Man did 28.50.
Just under two years ago Ushers Leo landed a €1,020 puppy stake at Enniscorthy. He’s had a few setbacks along the way but is now probably running in the best form of his career. On Friday he won for the fifth time in his last seven outings, clocking the quickest 415 of the week, 26.32 (PB 26.25).
Flitwick Club missed out on her only visit to Harlow having established herself as Henlow’s top A1 performer before her open race exploits. In her absence, Jogon Blue and Salacres Blake hard a bit of a carve up between them. But Club (13-8) returned on Sunday night and the balance in the universe was restored with Blake (3-1) second and the usurper Jogon Blue (13-8) back in third. Just for the record, it wasn’t the fastest time of the time. That belonged to Salacres Thatcher in 27.61 (A5), there was also a 27.70 run from progressive pup, Wendil Tiger. Great credit to the Henlow trackstaff, incessant rain but six sub 28.00 runs.
Similarly Kinsley’s top race of the week wasn’t won in the quickest time. Reigning POW Caydans Destiny took on previous winner Ballymac Wynett in A2 and both were beaten by Bev Heaton’s dual distance top heater Ballytadgh Best who had finished between the pair a week ago. Kilaharry Maisie can expect to join them next week after landing an A3 in 28.08 (-10) on the same card.
But while some tracks were fighting the weather, last week trainer Tony Collett suggested that all the new Central Park circuit now needed was several days of ‘dog and cat’ weather. He got his wish and was spot on. But instead of a bottomless circuit that would have been inevitable until a month ago, the new sand soaked up the moisture to produce a new 291m track record of 29.21 for Havana Top Note. Interestingly, Note ran some of his earliest qualifiers at Central Park, the quickest runs over the ‘480’ were 29.60 and 29.66 before a going allowance of -40.
