‘Golden Toncils’ (@TVdarrell) beat us to the story this week when declaring it impossible to split Saturday’s two big winners at Crayford. He is right of course.

In Warzone Tom, you have a Gold Collar winner who has shown huge determination and trackcraft throughout to defy bad trap draws and prove himself clearly the fastest hound in the event. Salacres Pippy was simply clinical with an outstanding display in the Cesarewitch including producing a 540m sectional (33.44) quicker than Warzone Tom’s winning time.

Two outstanding greyhounds but also a reminder to the detractors that while it will never be a Derby venue, Crayford remains of significant importance as a racing circuit for hounds with a specific skill set.

Should Signet Ace land tonight’s Eclipse Final he will almost certainly land his third consecutive POW at Nottingham having landed his semi final in 29.19. It was the fastest run since Deerjet Sydney’s second round win in last year’s Derby and the joint sixth fastest time ever recorded over c&d.

Ace’s half brother Front Monopoly landed the fastest four bend open at Harlow on Wednesday but it is Dan Brabon’s Ragtime Storm who is getting the ‘copy and paste’ treatment following her fourth win in her last five outings and her fastest 592 to date. With yet another title defended by Sweet Pear at Romford. The clock suggested a decline of 18 spots on the previous week, the stewards assessed it as a 22 spot improvement.

Earlier in the week, the Sheffield track staff’s endeavours were rewarded when Duke De Janerio took three spots off his PB for the 500m course with the third fastest clock of the year.

Hove had Olympic trialstakes over the 515m course in addition to the regular 500s and quickest of the lot over the longer course was Richard Yeates’ Lanzo who last featured in this column following a ten length 29.20 win in A1. That’s a 174-1 four-timer. Stranger Things happen at Sunderland where Yvonne Bell’s open racer switched back to A1 and went a spot quicker in the fastest time of the week.

It was at Sunderland that Dunquin Puma contested the ARC Puppy Cup Final alongside Brookside Richie and Skywalker Stan having clocked 28.47 on debut at Newcastle. Things haven’t worked out quite as well as might be expected but with three wins in his last six including a FOW 28.65, hopefully Angela Harrison’s black is returning to his best.

Most weeks, a 28.10 for 480 (Goldies Mabbutt) or a 37.79 for 630 (Santro Duke) would be enough to secure the Monmore nomination. But with the quickest 684 in two years, it has to go to last week’s fastest 630 winner Bombardier.

Similarly, most weeks at Yarmouth, between two and four runners break the 28.00 barrier. This week there was only one making his selection a formaiity, All About Gold. A similar story at Kinsley, one sub-28.00 run for ex-Henlow/Towcester regular Tullymurry Boss.

Meanwhile at Henlow it was ex-Belle Vue A2 regular Ballymac Tessa who produced the best run of the week when landing the top heat in 27.74 (-20).

Having staged the Oaks and Laurels, most of the year’s quickest 480 times at Perry Barr have gone to the open racers. So great credit to recent Irish arrival Crystal Reggie for a 28.17 run in A2.

Varying weather conditions between race meetings have made times redundant at some tracks. No better example than Doncaster whose sole A1 race of the week was won in a hand-timed 31.20 (-100) by the tough Meteoric Rise.

A string of Sunday meetings were cancelled due to frozen tracks. Unfortunately the weather cost Pelaw’s only fixture of the week. Swindon lost their open card leaving honours for the week’s quickest four bend winner Magical Hulk who clocked 28.46 in A2 a few days earlier.

Central Park did beat the weather and saw the emergence of a bright new hurdling talent in Chasing Turkey. Dave Lee’s runner was no mug on the flat having run Ten Pin to a length and a half over the flat course where he had a personal best of 28.77(calc). A nine length 29.47 (-10) run in his first race over the jumps suggests Champion Hurdle potential, and then of course there is always the Springbok!

Towcester’s loss of the Sovereign Stakes final and Puppy Derby heats meant the quickest middle distance performer was A3 winner Iron Brew. Interestingly, Brew is a litter brother to previous POW winners Ballyboss Baz (Sheffield), Carter Bar (Romford), Lochryan and Montrose (both Yarmouth). Surely a record?

CENTRAL PARK 29.47 480mH CHASING TURKEY (Droopys Jet-Absolutely Ace, Mar 19)
CRAYFORD 33.58 540m WARZONE TOM (Good News-Bogger Bonnie, Aug 19)
  56.56 874m SALACRES PIPPY (Definate Opinion-Pippy, Sep 18)
DONCASTER 31.20 483m METERIOC RISE (Holdem Spy-Bigmans Gainne, May 19)
HARLOW 37.87 592m RAGTIME STORM (Good News-Jaytee Sahara, Feb 19)
HENLOW 27.64 460m BALLYMAC TESSA (Ballymac Best-Ballymac Cameo, Aug 18)
HOVE 30.50 515m LANZO (Laughil Blake-Some Tears, Mar 19)
KINSLEY 27.99 462m TULLYMURRY BOSS (Droopys Roddick-Nans Lucky, Aug 18)
MONMORE 41.03 684m BOMBARDIER (Ballymac Matt-Ballymac Efirgie, Jul 19)
NEWCASTLE 28.65 480m DUNQUIN PUMA (Skywalker Puma-Daithis Legacy, Jul 19)
NOTTINGHAM 29.19 500m SIGNET ACE (Laughil Blake-Forest Natalee, Sep 18)
PELAW GRANGE No racing      
PERRY BARR 28.17 480m CRYSTAL REGGIE (Heisman-Corduff Flame, Aug 19)
ROMFORD 35.38 575m SWEET PEAR (Droopys Jet-Kingdom Queen, Jul 19)
SHEFFIELD 28.63 500m DUKE DE JANERIO (Droopys Sydney-Samiya, Aug 18)
SUNDERLAND 27.33 450m STRANGER THINGS (Superior Product-Farloe Dana, Sep 18)
SWINDON 28.46 476m MAGICAL HULK (Greenwell Hulk-Torchbearer, Sep 19)
TOWCESTER 29.78 500m IRON BREW (Pat C Sabbath-Auntie, Jul 18)
YARMOUTH 27.96 462m ALL ABOUT GOLD (Kinloch Brae-Yahoo Perlena, Apr 19)