BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

The Performance of the Week selections are made on the basis of all sorts of parameters. Sometimes though, facts, figures and winning times only tell part of the story.

A great example is the Bresbet 75^th East Anglian Derby Final where only a glimpse of the video will put the performance into perspective. A missed break, first bend crowding, and a last to first burst would make Antigua Storm one of the most memorable winners of the 75 finals.

On Saturday night in Ireland, the old adage about ‘sticking with a bitch in form’ was probably being widely quoted. Roll on 24 hours and across the sea at Swindon and Pocket Lola landed the 75^th Two Year Old Produce Stakes. It was her 13^th win in her last 17 races with a personal best in the final.

Or what of Coolavanny Aunty who made it five wins from her last six races with a flying 29.31 in the semi finals of the Empress Stakes at Towcester?

Last week Night Time Danny was the selection on the basis of his fastest trialstake win in the ARC St Leger trialstakes. Most noteworthy this week isn’t that he was again the quickest, but the fact that his winning time was precisely half a second faster than his previous outing!

Brookside Richie produced a similar trick as he continues to dominate the Coral Puppy Cup at Romford. He found 10 spots last week’s POW when landing a semi final in 23.67. Only Bockos Jon Jo (23.63) has gone quicker this year.

At Henlow, the veteran Layton Shrek has established himself as top dog while the previous track champ Raily McCoy has been away open racing. The latter returned on Sunday but found Steve Fletcher’s dog in no mood to hand over his crown. That’s seven from his last ten over two different distances.

Last week at Kinsley, Corona Lady had the temerity to intervene in a private battle for no.1 status between Cloneen Alba and Peads Dazzler. The pair were joined in the A2 this week by another former top dog in Glenvale Gav. Lady wasn’t phased when turning over all three in 28.02.

Possibly the hardest decision of the week was choosing between Nottingham open winners Trumps Benefit and Ramors Jet. The latter clocked the fastest 680 of the year (41.27) last month and wasn’t far away with a 41.48 run. But we’ll edge it to the Puppy Classic third (500m – 29.59) who still has another two months to spare in juvenile company.

Sunderland was also a tight one. For just under two hours, Milldean Topaz was in the box seat with a 27.29 A1 win. Until Slamman Nights showed the benefit of change of scenery by returning from Newcastle to land another top heat in 27.28. (Great credit to the local trackstaff too – there can’t be many tracks running more consistently, week after week, than Sunderland).

Ashbank Boss is another Newcastle refugee who has settled down well in his new home. In his 15^th outing at Pelaw Grange, the veteran produced a personal best of 25.84 for the 435m

The Crayford selection was a close call between two of Heather Dimmock’s Saturday night open winners, Popworld and Alaskan Dawn. The latter shaded it with a 56.60 run over 10 bends. Nothing went quicker in 2020, but by way of comparison the quickest over c&d in 2019 was Burgess Honey (56.25).

No selection problems at Hove, one sub 29.50 winner this week, Stuart Maplesden’s impressive Galaxy Freedom whose 29.43 was recorded on (-10) and was his sixth win in his last eight appearances on the South Coast.

There was one obvious race to draw this week’s track champion from at Doncaster. It was a hot A1 with the Gaskin and Parker kennels supplying five of the runners. The comprehensive 30.08 (-40) winner was Jimmy Gaskin’s Waikiki Dancer with his eighth win from his last 11 outings.

Nothing jumped off the Monmore results sheet this week. But none probably went better than Forest Blaze who landed a six bend maiden by eight lengths on debut. A similar story at Central Park where Rach It Up landed the final of the Novice Stayers.

Kevin Ferguson has probably lost count on the amount of times he would have been asked to name the fastest of his brilliant ‘Acomb’ litter. Home breds Fatima, Hugo, Jenny. Lillian and Winston have all won opens. On results to date, the best three in the litter: Winston, Lillian and Jenny contested 500m opens at Sheffield on Tuesday. Winston weighted in with a 28.67 (Lillian was fourth in the same race). But Acomb Jenny was two spots quicker. Question answered!

Newcastle featured the finals of their ‘Winner of One’ sweepstakes. Angela Harrison’s will now be looking for ‘Winner of Three’ competitions for Tullovin Alfie after winning his heat in 28.45 (+10) and the final in 28.46 (N).

Benwell Girl had 44 races on her card before landing her first ever open at Harlow, also on Wednesday. Paul Clarke’s black, who is a 14.84 sprinter, clocked 26.48 on a -20 track.