The Click Competitions East Anglian Derby remains one of the few major events not won by Seamus Cahill and there would be considerable support for the popular Tipperarian if Watch The Limo was to prevail. He was the quickest of Saturday night’s first round winners and has a UK racing record of 2:2.
Another 77th event taking place at the moment is the British Breeders Produce Stakes at Swindon which must rate as the best in several years. Honours were largely divided between the KSS and Firmager camps with seven of the nine first round heats between them. Quickest of the lot was puppy Queen Joni with the fourth win in her five race career. She also removed cousin King Memphis from the top of the FOY table with a 27.84 run.
The 2019 Produce Stakes winner King Sheeran is the sire of the most impressive winner at Romford on Friday night. Maxine Locke’s 21 month old Droopys Eddie clocked the fastest time over the 400 metre course (23.56) since Bockos Jonjo’s 23.53 almost three years ago. A reminder that the Coral Romford Puppy Cup closes a week tomorrow and gets underway the following Friday (September 15)
Last week’s Hove POW Hollow Man extended his winning sequence to five with a 30.23 win over the 515m course. But he loses his crown to another impressive Locke trained Portlaw emigrant, Droopys Reserve, over the shorter course. The young black dog clocked the fifth fastest 500 of the year with a 29.25 run, thus rubber stamping his 29.07 Towcester form. Two wins and only four races to date. Great prospect.
A great week was completed for the kennel when Storys Hybrid comfortably landed the Betgoodwin Maiden Derby Final at Henlow. The big black – the most common trademark of the Droopys Sydneys, along with ability of course – won three of his four Henlow outings and found seven lengths between first round and the £5,000 decider.
With due acknowledgement to Clona Duke, Space Jet, Droopys Arabella, Quarteira, and Hopes Knight, there can only be on POW for Nottingham, the Jenningsbet Puppy Classic winner Glenvale Bill. He had an aggregate winning margin of 19 lengths over the three runs and his winning time equalled the clock of Select Stakes winner Clona Duke.
Hometown Tilly finished down the field behind Quateira on the Nottingham undercard. But Scott Horner’s British bred blue was back on the card at Kinsley on Sunday and was just one spot off the fastest 268m run of the year when clocking 15.92.
When Jane Craske’s Adamant Kyle went to traps for the 1.09 race at Suffolk Downs on Thursday, his last three lines of form were 6th 11-1, 6th 14-1, 6th – 18-1. So the dog whose last win was in A3 at Yarmouth looked conservatively priced at 8-1. Didn’t stop him winning though in the quickest open race win of the meeting, 23.75.
The Grand National got in the way of Laughil Jess’s domination of the Caryford POW. She just kept going though and made it 10 in a row on Saturday. That is 13 from her last 14 for Dave Lee’s white and black whose best Irish form was a 28.74 win at Shelbourne.
Jess’s kennelmate Bluejig Baron managed to collect the Harlow and Central Park POW awards a couple of weeks ago. He was a little slower than Havana Lover in their respective opens last week when she was our star turn. But on Sunday afternoon the pair met in the same race and it was the Lee runner who extended his winning sequence to four with a 29.33 run.
On the last occasion that we featured Baron, litter brother Bluejig Hank, was the Sunderland selection. On Friday night, Yvonne Bell’s runner was in a league of his own with a 26.75 A1 win. Only one graded winner has gone quicker this year, Witton Venue (26.73).
Earlier in the day, Steve Caile’s Crooks Patsy has produced the best graded performance of the week with a 28.59 run for Newcastle’s 480 course. The fawn is a match for most at the track when he comes away and has open race winning form over four (28.48) and six bends (39.12).
Completing the North East triangle is Pelaw Grange whose A2 featured the previous two Performers of the Week, Mustang Tyson and Hurleys Spring. But they were to finish fourth and second respectively behind the meeting’s only sub26 winner, Milagro.
While there is a 1:10 chance of a winner being the selection at Pelaw, that rockets to 1:71 at Harlow. Leading that field this week was Sunday night winner Pennys Meghan with a 26.58 run for the standard; her eighth win in the last 11 outings and just one spot quicker than Millview Blondie.
There were no Tuesday opens at Sheffield last week; the elite runners had to wait for Saturday. Although the defending POW Saleen Icon landed the £500 invitation, it was the dog who finished third behind Icon the previous Tuesday who recorded the fastest run of the week. The strong finishing Distant Hugo made it four wins from his last six in 28.64; all of which bodes well for his inevitable switch to six bends.
Talk of which leads to Perry Barr and the PGR St Leger which gets underway next weekend (entries close Wednesday). Quickest over the 710 course in the last trialstakes was the game Low Pressure with a 43.43 run. Sadly, the quickest hound over the Leger course this year, Salacres Smasher, broke a hock in the same race.
Next Saturday also sees the Lol Jones Memorial meeting with a series of £1,000 one-off opens sponsored by Chris and Linda Jones. Final night will also see the finals of three kennel sweepstakes, the heats of which took place this weekend. Pick of the bunch was S1 winner Aero Arran with a 38.11 run.
Next Sunday sees the official first round of the Empress Stakes at Towcester and with three sub 29.20 winners among the trialstake winners, it promises to be a top class event. Quickest on the day was Patrick Janssens’ Charming Girl with a 29.12 run. One lady who won’t be taking part is kennelmate and defending champ Fabulous Azurra who was withdrawn in season. Presumably we won’t see the four year old on the track again. What a bitch she has been and what a mum she will make.
There was very little difference on the clock between the Doncaster A1 runners this week with going playing a part in all of them. The classiest of the bunch featured the unfortunate My Blue Boy who failed to complete the course in a race that went to Agile Milly. Debbie Calvert’s home bred 8-11f clocked 30.06 (-30) for a third win in her last four outings.
The first round of the Sandy Lane Maiden Derby took place at Oxford on Saturday but all were put in the shade by Kevin Hutton’s Pall Mall finalist Coppice Tenzin with a 26.76 run, just four spots off his PB.
