BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

With the semi finals of two Cat One and a Cat 2 event on Saturday, Hove’s was the outstanding meeting of the week. As for the best performance – surely Aayamza Royale, moving down a division to beat some of the best dogs in the country over their own trip?

Have to confess to some head scratching over the going allowance though. There are all sorts of lines of form to scrutinise, but being dog racing, also lots of additional factors to blur the stats. I will just point to one though. In the first round, Bo Shine Bullet didn’t trap brilliantly (6211 1^st), clocked a 14.28 sectional and 41.44 (N) winning time. In Saturday’s semis, she popped out in front (1111 1^st) clocked a 14.20 sectional and recorded 41.96, adjusted down (-15) to 41.81. Not for me!

Also on Saturday night, Monmore Daddys Prince turned up for (yet) another exhibition performance. Three in a row, fastest 630 since last August. Stop messing around Tony, give him the Monmore Dog of the Year trophy now!

Meanwhile at Sheffeld, Jason Bloomfield’s raider Burgess Puma once again showed he is very tough to catch when he traps clear, as he produced a decent 39.26 run for six bends. But it was a coin toss selection over Look Out who made it two wins from four with a 28.86 run over four bends.is day will come.

The week had started well for David Mullins when Brookside Richie completed an unbeaten run through the Juvenile Classic decider at Towcester. That run continued when the 25 kilo Easy Eyes led home a kennel 1-2-3 in a £500 Cat 3 final at Romford on Friday night.

The fastest hound over the Newcastle 480m trip this year, Jaguar Macie (28.28) returned to The Fossway on Wednesday and also became the second fastest hound over course and distance.

The easiest selection of the week was at Nottingham. Just the two opens and Churchill Holly with the fastest time of the week in the £600 final to complete a treble.

Nothing much to shout about at Perry Barr this week, one sub 29.00 run and that went to A4 winner Creevy Tiger.

Kicking King gets the Crayford nomination on the basis of a 23.57 run for the 380 metres. It wasn’t the fastest run of the week (23.43), but King did have to clear a set of hurdles!

A 27.77 run was enough to earn Jura Go Max last week’s Yarmouth nomination. Even though Rahillys Junior was marginally quicker than this week’s effort 27.80/27.87, Max’s win was in a slightly superior A1.

There was a similar issue at Doncaster. On times alone, it would go to Sue Watson’s A2 winner Ballymac Johnsie with a 29.77 run. Now far be it for us to instigate family riffs, but we’ve got to give it to grandson Jimmy Gaskin’s Ballymac Rocker who turned over Kilara Bugle (Mrs Watson) by a short head in 29.88, in an A1 that also featured previous POW winners Glitter Gee and Kilara Lark.

Doncaster and Sunderland both race over 450 metres but there is a world of difference between the circuits and the times. When Sweet Revenge ran at Donny, she had to tackle winter conditions and even with going allowances, she was a ‘low 28’ B2 runner. On the Sunderland summer going, she is now a 27.39 winner in A1.

Peads Dazzler was a Sunderland A1 regular with a best of 27.27 last autumn. He is now trained by Craig Brown at Kinsley and won the track’s highest grade of the week, A2, in 27.90.

No sign of Harlow’s best performers this week. Lemming Devon, who started at 12-1 when beaten by Hot Product last time out, took full advantage of more mediocre opposition to land the week’s best 415m contest.

Pelaw Grange has the country’s only double digit kennel strength, with some of them apparently destined for neighbouring tracks. The best of those still performing in Durham, last week’s returning champ Dalton Banjo who followed up with another A1 victory in 26.26.

For some time, most of the Sunday attention has focused on Central Park and Swindon. However the Kent venue are now going a different route. There were no Sunday opens and the best of this week’s graded action came on Friday where Deadly Doughnut landed his second consecutive A1.

With three highly A1s and an S1 on the menu, Henlow more than hold their own. The evidence came with a stunning 27.20 (-10) run from Glenvale Tony. It as the second fastest time of the year for Keith Robins ‘ dog (Jet Stream Socks: 27.11) with Tony’s 32.88 still the fastest over the 550 course.

Finally at Swindon, Carol Weatherall’s youngster Mon Ami clocked the fastest four bend time of the night. While the 28.32 (-10) might not raise many pulses, beating Ballymac Conti on his home sand tells the bigger story.