BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

The most obvious selection of the week goes to the new Golden Sprint champion Bockos Jon Jo. Despite running over a trip probably 60 metres short of his optimum, the black did nothing to disprove his trainer’s belief that he had the fastest dog in the line-up.

Presumably though, Patrick wasn’t as confident as Paul Meek when Droopys Tara went to traps at 8-13 for a Perry Barr A5. The confidence proved well placed though as the 18 month old pup won by seven and clocked the quickest 480 of the week.

Graham Rankin is promising a slimmed down Jaguar Macie for Wednesday’s Northern Puppy Derby semis, though the lardy Monmore Puppy Derby winner was still the stand-out from the first round at Newcastle.

Last autumn Antonella was racing at 25.1 kilos in Crayford’s A2 company. On Saturday, and almost three kilos heavier, she saw off an A1 field in the second fastest time of the year, 23.12. Smaller still is Harlow pup Distant Sue whose performance of the week followed a 24kg weigh in.

Choosing the most worthy winner of Monmore’s 11 opens on Saturday is a tough enough challenge but we’ve edged it to Kelseys Phoenix following a decent 15.46 clock on going rated -15. Just missing out was 28.70 (-30) winner Black Eyed Molly, though she had put her name on the board with a Tuesday night win at Towcester.

It takes a fair pup to win a Monmore A1 on debut but Denmark did just that last June. Now with Newcastle’s Tom Heilbron, the big white and black goes into tonight’s British Breeders final as the fastest semi winner.

Doncaster staged a couple of classy A1s on Sunday. Lightfoot Quitly won the first, but Paul Prior’s Keady Cain was quicker on the clock when taking the other and extending his winning sequence to four. Meanwhile at neighbouring Kinsley, puppy Highview Lunar was the only level break hound to break 28.00 during the week.

Hove staged seven top heat events in the last week but A2 winner Warren Hill was quickest on the clock. Sheffield’s sole A1 went to Ballyboss Con in suitably impressive, 28.71. On the subject of Dominance, the suitably named Yarmouth runner was the only dog to break 28.00 at the track this week.

With eight wins from 16 outings, all in A1, Garcloss Mo has been a serial POW nomination at Pelaw. He was some way off his personal best this week, but still the fastest by far over four bends. We switch to the short six bends for the Henlow nomination this week and the fastest dog over the 550m five bends this year in Tinks Legend.

Stud dog Droopys Jet is dominating the open race table and this chart. We can expect to see his daughter Slamannan Days feature regularly if the Sunderland pup continues her current progress.

Sunday night featured some very decent open racing at Central Park where Bockos Jon Jo’s kennelmate Seaglass Smokey got home by 12 lengths in a flying 29.55 (-20) run in the opening round of the Cearnsport Springbok. While at Swindon, Smurfs Machine gave just a glimpse of the form that saw him contest last year’s Derby Final. . And he did it at 5-1!