BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

There were a series of spectacular performances at Hove on Saturday though for excitement and quality, there won’t be many better this year than Aayamza Royale’s run in Regency. She has now won 14 of her last 20 from 695m-945m. Huge credit too to the very brave Ragtime Arthur who now holds down a position among the ‘special stayers’ in his own right.

If you had been told that a greyhound would clock 28.18 at Newcastle on Wednesday night, you would probably assume that Jaguar Macie took a flyer in the Angel Of The North and produced her best ever run. She did win, but it was more about heart and class than fast times. In fact, that clock was down to Duke De Janerio. It was the fastest run since Hiya Boyo recorded an identical time last July. As for Gary Ferguson’s runner, that was just the 99 spots improvement on his heat win.

The toughest call of the week was between three very comparable performances over three different distances at Monmore: Havana Class (264m-15.19), Minglers Popeye (480m-28.17) and Warzone Tom (630m-37.82). Given that the Gold Cup is next on the agenda, we’ll edge it to Minglers Popeye with the fourth fastest time of the year. Much simpler job at Sheffield, Swift Wood, 29.01 beating Ballyboss Con by nearly nine lengths to complete a four-timer.

Harlow staged a series of opens on Wednesday but the pick of them saw two of the track’s top four middle distance hounds, Indian Trump and Hot Product in opposition. Honours went to Roger York’s who has won four of his last six over course and distance.

It was a good week for the pensioners. At Nottingham, Lynn Cook’s Plaza Lep and Churchill Holly have been dominating the Monday night opens. Last week they met and Holly came out in front. The week it was turn of the veteran with a 26^th win in 64 races. While at Romford, Droopys Aoife (4 years, 27 days old) stretched her 575 record to 27 wins from 41 races – an incredible 66% strike rate – with a 35.34 (-30) victory. One more for the old uns, a spectacular return to racing for last year’s Sussex Cup finalist Drahbeg Dash who returned to A2 at Perry Barr and produced easily the week’s fastest run, 28.79 (-20).

These selections are made across a variety of criteria. Crayford’s goes to the recent arrival Moaning Matrix (okay, another senior citizen!), but that isn’t the reason for choosing him. He landed the week’s top S1 in 33.98, but his last two races were in D1 (238m) at Harlow.

Sometimes it’s a tough call between the ‘top heat winner’ v ‘fastest of week’. If we’d gone the ‘top heat’ route, it would probably have been Fenway Park (27.79) with five wins in his last seven in A1 at Sunderland. Instead, we have gone for A3 winner Bernabia whose 27.42 was some run for an 18 month old pup.

Peads Dazzler was Kinsley’s stand out last week when just beating Cloneen Alba in the fastest time of the week, 27.90. On Sunday afternoon, they met again with Alba coming out on top in 27.91.

Yarmouth staged five different A1s, including a couple of A1.5s this week. Three of the winners broke 28.00 but the classiest of them all, in a contest that included Rahillys Junior (27.80) and Roxys Teddy (27.84) was Jakes Magic in 27.74 (PB 27.69).

The ‘cut and paste’ award for the week goes to Jimmy Gaskin’s Ballymac Rocker at Doncaster. Replace ’29.88’ with ’29.82’ – job’s a good un.

With only 10 races to choose from a week, Pelaw’s selection is the least imaginative. Quickest of the ten on Sunday was Your Round Benny in 26.16.

The most controversial? Possibly Savana Volcano’s 58.41 in a 942m invitation race at Towcester. It was more of an exhibition than a race with Diane Henry’s bitch starting at 1-16 and winning by a head under 16 lengths. So why does she get it? That time has only been bettered once – by Aayamza Royale with a run of 58.40.

Central Park also staged a couple of Sunday night invitations and we end up with a comparison between the two. The defending Performer of the Week, Deadly Doughnut, just got home to win by a neck in 29.45 (-20), his third win in the last four. But we’ll edge it to King Sam for a more emphatic win in the sprint. Liz McNair’s home bred clocked 16.24 (-10), some way down on his FOY performance of 16.07. There was a similar coin toss between Magical Zack (649m) and Ballymac Conti (476m). Both were back on their best form but the latter boasts a better recent record, five wins and two seconds in his last eight.

Henlow’s performer of the week was always destined to be chosen from the 9.18 race on Sunday, an A1 field that featured Rail McCoy, Drumcrow Bruce and Jet Stream Socks. The winner – once again – was the Mark Wallis trained Rail McCoy. The 33 kilo was completing a five-timer, and has five wins and a second in his last local appearances.