Omuircheartaigh fastest in Northern Puppy Derby semis
Tom Heilbron’s Omuircheartaigh was fastest in last night’s Arena Racing Company Northern Puppy Derby semi finals with a 2854 in semi final one however with just a fraction over 3 lengths between the winners and only 34 spots between all six qualifiers next week’s final promises to serve up a classic.
Romford’s Maxine Locke made the long journey north well worthwhile as she saw Droopys Display and Eunice qualifying whilst owner Tony Brealey also had two qualify as his ‘Coppice’ prefixed runners Saphire and Ella qualified through from the final semi for trainers Jimmy Fenwick and Kevin Hutton respectively. Diane Henry’s Clona Curly completes the line up.
DRUIDS CAN SAY GO ‘AGAIN’ IN GOLDEN SPRINT TRIAL STAKE
The £10,000 to the winner Coral Golden Sprint will soon be upon us with the first round pencilled in for 1st March. Between now and then there will be many gaining valuable experience of Romford in the hope of landing one of the biggest short four bend course competitions in the calendar. All being well the Patrick Janssens trained Druids Say Go should have a big say in the competition. The lightly raced September 2021 daughter of Droopys Sydney can only improve over the next few months so the fact that she already holds claim to 2 out of the 3 fastest times of the year to date over the Golden Sprint course and distance is testament to the potential this pacey white and black bitch possesses. If her wide margin 2372 win early in January wasn’t promising enough then her 2366 last week most certainly opened the eyes of plenty. With John Mullins Swift Iconic drawn to her immediate outside there will be no room for error but granted a decent break she can be away and gone from an early stage in the 936pm Golden Sprint Trial Stakes.
There are two other trial stakes on the card the first of which takes place at 844pm and can finally see Jason Bloomfield’s Ballyard Shawny win around this venue for the second time. He was impressive when landing a heat of the Golden Sprint last year on what was just his second competitive start around the track but since then he has squandered a number of decent opportunities around a venue which really should be ideal for him. Lining up around here last week at 11/8 Shawny again suffered bad luck when catching his muzzle and as a result ended up being beaten a distance. He can put all that behind him tonight with a smash break in a race which given any kind of start he should be winning and winning well.
The middle of tonight’s three trial stakes takes place at 902pm and can go to Paul Burr’s Drumdoit Matt who has plenty of experience around here. Matt was handled well to progress nicely through the grades and having already landed a maiden here can win for the first time in full open class company. He’s not the flashiest away from the traps on most occasions which is a shame as once in front he’s a formidable opponent but this is a race in which he can lead round on the inside with anything resembling a decent start. Not one for huge stakes but most certainly worth an interest at what should be decent odds.
BITUMEN TO ‘COOK’ THE BOOKS FOR LYNN
Three opens at Nottingham tonight with the highlight being the Nottingham-greyhounds.co.uk Standard Trophy Final at 821pm. Nottingham trainer Lynn Cook can taste success on the open scene with her Bitumen fancied to get the job done from a nice looking draw. Bitumen will likely have to settle for sitting on the shoulder of Colin Wilton’s Pedro Smurph in the early stages but should have too much for that rival come the latter stages.
Nottingham’s full form including the standard final can be found by clicking here.
Forthcoming opens
Thursday: Hove – Newcastle – Swindon – Suffolk Downs
Friday: Nottingham – Romford
Saturday: Central Park – Crayford – Monmore – Oxford – Perry Barr
