BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

The cream of the British and Irish middle distance open racers were out in force at Nottingham on Saturday and the quickest of them all was Deerjet Sydney. Only Skywalker Logan, Droopys Verve and Magical Bale have ever been quicker.

Another easy pick was Roxholme Olaf in the Henlow Maiden Derby Final. It wasn’t just winning a Cat Two final – it was the sensational winning time of 27.02.

There were some flying runs at Romford on Friday including Zascandil’s 46.56 for the 750, but Droopys Carat’s 23.53 is the best run to date on the ‘switched’ 400 metre course.

With a variety of open race competitions on-going at Crayford, it is hard to compare different distances but on balance, Beechgrove Bell’s semi final win in the Kent St.Leger just shades it. There is a similar distance conundrum at Towcester where Heather Dimmock’s Popworld clocked a flying 29.48 for the 500m course, though on balance we have decided to edge it to kennelmate Bentley Crew with the fastest sprint run since the circuit was changed.

In the meantime, the previous fastest over the Towcester sprint, King Drake (15.71) replaces sister Queen Lillly with the fast semi final run in the BGBF Scurry at Harlow.

On the subject of British breds, it is well over two years since Shoot The Bolt announced his presence on the open race scene when runner up to litter comrade Zenas Zeus in the Produce Stakes. June Harvey’s veteran is still in good form and won the quickest Hove A1 of the week. Shelbys Memory wasn’t born when Bolt was doing his stuff at Swindon, but he was the equivalent most impressive A1 winner at Monmore last week.

KIngsbrook Glynn might be overshadowed by a few in the Hutton kennel but what a brilliant servant he has proven over 480m and upwards. His 39.86 (-30) run for six bends at Central Park gets a long overdue acknowledgement.

At Yarmouth Massive Ego only managed two wins in 16 races but has won his last two, the most recent in a very respectable 27.70.

When it comes to consistency though, you would do well to match Kinsley’s Brosna Blonde. Last 10 races: 7 wins, 2 seconds and a third. The winning SPs: 2-1, 5-2, 11-4, 7-2, 4-1, 9-2, 13-2.

On the subject of Kinsley, yet another superb performance from the local kennel of owner, trainer, breeder Kevin Ferguson who took Acomb Jenny to Newcastle and produced a 28.28 run (FOY 28.18). Staying in the North East, Walkaway Joe crept into the Sunderland top ten 450m runs of the year with a 27.13 run in September and then repeated it last week in only his second outing. Curley Freddie landed the best A1 at Pelaw.

With the open racing now over at Sheffield, the focus falls back on the graders and any runner breaking 29.00 for the standard is sure to be in the running for the POW. Jaguar Blake got there with 11 spots to spare.

We don’t plan to go down the route of giving nominations to beaten runners so Swindon’s Rodrick Rules get the nod on the basis of the fastest 470 winner of the week. But it would be wrong not to mention the 18 month old pup beaten only a length in the same race, Ballymac Trend.

Of course its always nice to bring some family rivalry to the party. Ballymac Rocker and Ballymac Macken would have been well fancied to pick up the weekly award for Jimmy Gaskin in a cracking B1 at Doncaster. But they had to play second and third fiddle to Sue Watson’s Ballymac Cino. Go Nanna!

Last but not least, Bower Turbo gets onto the chart – though it is not for breaking the 595 clock at Oxford. That was in 2008. The 2020 version is Pat Rosney’s 28.56 winner at Perry Barr.