BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

One place to start after Derby Final weekend, and a tremendous win for Deerjet Sydney at Nottingham. The 29.38 run was eclipsed on the night by Doolin Duke (29.21), though Sydney’s best of the competition, 29.15, was only bettered three times last year, 29.14 (Droopys Verve, Magical Bale) and 29.05 (TR) Skywalker Logan.

Meanwhile in the next Cat 1 final to reach the track, the Colossus Bet Grand National, Nomansland Flyer retained his nomination when landing the quickest semi final on Sunday night.

This time last year Yvonne Gaskin was rattling out the open race winners with Chopchop Hope. After failing in seven graded attempts her Knockglass Magic switched to six bends on Friday and booked a place in the Essex Vase first round with a 35.08 run.

Moving onto the graded fare High grade six bend races have been a bit thin on the ground at Crayford in the last week, though the returning Woodcocks Fury won the best of them in 34.21.

Two years ago Catunda Tom was running D2 at Monmore. You might think that the 39 kilo veteran might be struggling to see out the trip with advancing years. Not a bit of it as a 30.07 (-20) run in A2 at Doncaster clearly shows.

Some dogs find form in spells and a good example of that is this week’s Harlow selection, Moaning Sabba. A hat-trick preceded a 12 race losing sequence before another spell of 3:5 including the best graded winning time in a couple of months 26.02.

It would be hard to dispute that Steve Rayner’s Night Time Hero isn’t Henlow’s current track champion. Although his most recent winning time wasn’t the quickest of the week, it was an A1 win at 4-7 on slow going. He has won four of his last five.

Hove’s top dog came down to an A1 stand-off three races apart last Thursday. Dunquin Ella was impressive, but Antigua Rum’s litter brother Molinari edged it on the clock with a 29.61 run for 500m. While a sub 29.00 run at Sheffield is always a good bet for the nomination, stop forward ex Belle Vue A1 performer Jaguar Blake who recently completed a dual distance hat-trick in 28.91.

At Kinsley, a 27.79 for the 462 standard was good enough for last week’s nomination, this week it took a 27.68 A2 win for Murlens Tweet. Great Discovery was the only Yarmouth 462m runner to break 28.00.

Time for some 480m comparisons and leading the way at Monmore was British bred Union Secret with a 28.42 (-30) run. Roaming Mystery was marginally quicker with a 28.38 (+20) run, her first win at Newcastle after 14 failed attempts. (What a pity there are no graded stayers races!), while the Perry Barr 480 was at the mercy of Flyhigh Ollyhaz in 28.73.

Towcester had two meetings this week though nothing really stood out. So the nomination goes to a very young British bred puppy winning for the first time in a decent clock, Posh Nosh.

The Pelaw selection also came from the Sunday meeting, a familiar name in this feature, Skeough Girl with a 25.58 run. Also on Sunday were Sunderland’s Westforth Hugo and British Bred Scurry winner Dundee June who picked up the week’s highest grade at Swindon, an A2.