Bruisers Bullet (Droopys Cain-Clover Bride, May 15), contesting just the fifth race of his career, defeated Starsports Derby ante post favourite Clares Rocket though connections of the latter will be viewing the result with a series of mixed emotions writes Floyd Amphlett.
As far as the winner is concerned, it was all positives, a 29.11 ‘away and gone’ victory and the prospect of a serious Derby challenger for Mark Wallis. For the beaten favourite there were other problems.
The fact that he trapped so badly can surely be put down to ‘freshness’. He hasn’t faced any opposition on a track for six months, possibly became a little over-keen and as a result, his sectional was a length and a half slower than his first look at Towcester. (The two runners went winning line-to-winning line in identical times.)
Of more concern would be the Rocket’s racing style. The confirmed Irish wide runner made a beeline for the rail at the first bend and then attempted an inside pass coming off the last. Graham Holland’s plan to give the dog at least one more race at the track before the start of the event may be revised upwards.
But there were plenty of other interesting performances on the night, not least the 29.26 run by British bred Carn Brea (Take The Crown-Borna Empress, May 15). The brindle, whose racing career began in A4 at Yarmouth has now won his last three opens for John Mullins and shows no sign of levelling out.
The night’s other two opens went to Hot Trend (Tullymurry Act-Dynamic Trend, Oct 14) in 29.65 and Russanda Robin (Ballymac Vic-Droopys Peaches, Apr 14) in 29.72.
Brea’s kennelmate Peregrine Falcon was the quickest of the pre-meeting trialists with a 29.36 trial win. Other notables included Madabout Eoghan (29.60) and Tynwald Baz (29.62). Graham Hollan’s Sidarian Pearl beat kennelmates Nitro Notorious (length and a half) and Ballinakil Clare (length and a quarter) in a 15.34 sprint trial (260m).
