FROM FLAPPING TO A PUPPY CLASSIC FINAL – WITH FINAL FORM

“If it wasn’t for the Greyhound Star campaign to allow owner trainers, I wouldn’t be at Nottingham next week. I might have been at Valley running in the Welsh Derby.”

Wiltshire based Patrick Godfrey, one of the first applicants for an owner trainers licence sent out the fastest semi final winner of the GMG Puppy Classic at Nottingham on Monday night, the ‘interestingly’ named Arthur Noodle.

Drawn white in the first semi final, the 24 kilo black took charge from the start and came home five lengths clear of Shoot The Bolt for a Poole forecast. The winner’s time was 29.78 (+30).

Despite all qualifiers being reduced to five runners, favourite backers who had seen Newinn Jet (5-4f) eliminated in fifth place were about a get a real drubbing.

Roxholme Butt went to traps as the 2-5f in the second semi but missed his break and lost all remaining chance in first bend skirmishing. He eventually finished fourth.

The winner was Nigel Saunders’ 10-1 shot Blue Trooper from 7-2 chance Antigua Boss.

Boss’s litter brother Good Lad started as the evens favourite for the third qualifier, though he too bit the dust. To be more accurate, it was 5-4 second favourite Droopys Trawler who bit the dust when KO’d at the second bend.

The 7-2 winner was Pete Harnden’s Salacres Barley who led home the front running outsider Fizzypop Jet by half a length in 30.41 (all +20).

The draw saw Arthur Noodle handed the red jacket and will surely start favourite for next week’s decider.

So who is Arthur Noodle and how did she come to reach the Puppy Classic Final?

Patrick Godfrey said: “The story goes back to a piece you ran a couple of years ago when you were trying to get support for owner trainer licences.

“I run my own business in the health service industry and always fancied having a go in GBGB racing. But I wasn’t prepared to put my toe in the water by spending money on kennels. I wrote a letter to you that you published on the website.

“At that stage I was flapping at Valley, but I took out a license for Poole. It was only in a small way, all my ex-racers stay with me as pets until nature takes its course, so space was always going to be limited.

“But I enjoyed it so much that I have just built some new kennels for eight dogs, and now have a greyhound trainer licence.

“I love every minute of it. No treadmills for me, I just love taking the dogs out. I live next to the River Avon and walk my dogs on racehorse trainer Michael Blake’s land.

“I bought Noodle through Tony Winters in Cork. She only cost a couple of grand and I was really only looking for something to win top heat at Poole and maybe a minor open race.

“She was called Ferryforth Dazl when I first bought her and decided to change her name. At her suggestion, I decided to name her after my daughter Louise, whose nickname is Noodle, and after my wife, whose nickname is Arthur. It did raise some eyebrows when we booked her in for trials at Poole.”

So can Noodle win the final?

Patrick said: “I haven’t even looked at the betting. Dogs seem to break better from the middle at Nottingham so I am not sure about trap one.

“But then, we were well beaten by a very good pup of Patrick Janssens’ in the first round and I never thought that we would still be there and he wouldn’t.

“The only disappointment is that the Lowther Stakes starts on the same night as the Classic finishes.

“Noodle is only a little thing, she was only around 23.5 kilos when she started, and can get pushed around by the bigger dogs.

“So it would have nice if we could have kept her with the bitches. But I am certainly not complaining, and we’ll just see what happens next week.”

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