Roly and Erica Samuels describe 2015 as their best year in more than 20 spent training at Yarmouth writes Floyd Amphlett.
They finished the year as the track’s top graded kennel and had the bonus of landing the East Anglian Derby with the locally bred Do It For Twiggy.
Roly said: “It was unbelievable for ourselves and for the owners. The way that he caught Southfield Jock at Yarmouth and then hold off the very good Bubbly dog at Sittingbourne. Just unebelievable!
“The net result has been that we have several new dogs in the kennel who have come from running top grade at Romford and Hove with the intention of Craig taking them onto the open circuit in the new year.
“As far as Twiggy is concerned, the plan is to hopefully go for the Derby at Wimbledon and then come back to Yarmouth to defend his title.
“On behalf of myself, Erica and Craig, I would also like to thank Yarmouth Stadium for all their help last year.
“There were occasions, including with Twiggy, when we needed trials, and although they didn’t have to help us out, they always made the effort. Talking to trainers at some of the other tracks, we know that that isn’t always the case, but Yarmouth could not have been more obliging.”
Rays Hurricane (Tyrur Hestor-Westmead Amy, Dec 12) was Yarmouth’s most prolific winner during the year with 12 wins form 44 races with 8 seconds. Pete Witchell’s British bred black won top heat over two and four bends with a best of 28.32 for the 462 metres.
11 wins: Blackrose Minx, Bloomfield Rocky
10 wins: Artistic Moment, Millbank Cheek, Perfect Sapphire, Soviet Paddy, Tyrur Modric
The charge that track managements reduce grades to save prize money can certainly not be levelled at Yarmouth where A1 and A2 are the most polific grades on the card in 2015: Races per grade:
A1-380, A2-330, A3-295, A4-299, A5-208, A6-193, A7-121, A8-65
D1-14, D2-18, S1-12, S2-24, S3-4
The average 462 metre open is won in 27.93 compared to the 28.38 in an A1 race. But is that a far comparison since most opens are run on faster going in the summer?
In fact there is little difference if we compare the opens and graded races staged between July and September. The comparative figures are 27.96 and 28.33.
Overall there is an average difference of just under 14 lengths between an A1 and an A8 winner.
Average winning times (no going allowance)
A1-28.38, A2-28.62, A3-28.71, A4-28.83, A5-28.98, A6-29.12, A7-29.28, A8-29.49 462mO/R-27.93
Unluckiest loser of the year? Possibly Erica Samuels’ Britannic Flight who clocked a potential finger-wagging 28.28 in an A6 but was still beaten three quarters of a length by ex-Harlow A7 runner Kinross Jack who clocked 28.23.
