Say Go’s Golden Opportunity
The Coral Golden Sprint semi finals take centre stage at Romford this evening following a 5-1 first round in favour of the bookmakers.
For a reminder on how it all developed
Faint hearted punters look away now! Five railers and a middle seed in a race that includes a couple of the fastest ‘genuine sprinters’ in training, Bombout Bullet and Romeo Crusade. Not that Bullet looked like his normal dragster self in the opening round. He found himself on the outside of a ‘Shirleys Boy shaped obstacle’ and had to dig deep. On one of his better breaks, he leads and wins. If he doesn’t, well you might as well roll the dice. . . .
The oh so classy Crafty Shivoo should have come on for the run and could spring a surprise, though that would seem more likely in another month. (She is still only 11 weeks out of season). Given a draw on the inside (and particularly on the inside of the selection), Romeo Crusade would be the one to beat. He only has one career race in five, ran well but was beaten. He could give Bullet a run for his money, but there is a long way between the orange trap and his beloved inside rail.
Coral’s betting: 5/2 Romeo Crusade, 10/3 Bombout Bullet, Crafty Shivoo, Front Alice, Bombay Zero, 11/1 Kila Detail
This is the biggie! The nightmare scenario for the inside two which might resemble a scene from the coursing field at Powerstown Park as they dispute domination to the bend. From trap one, the 5/2 antes post leader Druids Say Go would be the reasonably confident selection. With Romeo Cypher on her inside, she is merely ‘the selection’.
Why Say Go? Mainly because she is a born winner. Seven wins and two seconds from nine races over course and distance. Any trap will do. Though she possibly hasn’t faced many tougher career challenges than a hound with Cypher’s early pace on her left shoulder. Super Nova for the tricast. Always.
Corals betting: 4/5 Druids Say Go, 11/4 Romeo Cypher, 9/2 Supa Nova, 9/1 La Gitana, 10/1 Rapido Lady, 25/1 Hellofavalentine
Without doubt the weakest of the three qualifiers with the Aero Convey the shortest priced runner on the ante post list at 14/1. He has sub 23.60 form over course and distance though hasn’t convinced that Romford is his ideal venue. Might have preferred the white jacket too!
On his day, and providing he comes away at his best, Cunnigar Yousir has enough ability to win this. Like Convey, this doesn’t look like his perfect circuit or distance but he has shown that he has gears when he gets it right. If you were looking for a shock, don’t rule out Roadsea Gun. The former Hove A8 runner has made ‘exceeding expections’ his superpower.
Corals betting: 7/4 Aero Convey, Cunnigar Yousir, 6/1 Roadsea Gun, 7/1 March On Mini, 8/1 Shirleys Boy, Seomra Paws
Dashing Dude set a new sprint track record for Swindon’s 262m trip with a 15.06 run on Thursday night. Frank Bryce’s runner half a length inside Impact George’s previous best.
THERE are eight nominations for the Time Greyhound Nutrition-backed Greyhound of the Month award for February.
They are Allowdale Cazoo (Nathan Hunt), Bubbly Inferno (Paul Young), Churchfield Syd (Richard Rees), Clona Curly (Diane Henry), Dazl Rolex (Ricky Holloway), Garfiney Blaze (Mark Wallis), King Capaldi (Liz McNair) and Links Maverick (Tom Heilbron).
January’s Time Greyhound of the Month, voted for by members of the Greyhound Writers’ Association, was the John Mullins-trained, Chris Waters and Lee Calcutt-owned Signed Goofy after his Blue Riband triumph at Towcester.
Call for awards shake up
Following Sunday’s ceremony in Brighton, here appears to be a growing feeling that GBGB should revisit the voting criteria for its annual awards writes Floyd Amphlett.
There is no suggestion of any integrity issues or even widespread disagreement with the decision making. However a number of industry stakeholders are questioning the basic structure of the awards and whether they represent an outdated racing model.
The issue can be summed up by the following graphic which clearly demonstrates the imbalance between the five major categories – only the winner of each category can be considered for the Greyhound of the Year title.
The volume of Category One middle standard distance events dwarves all the other categories combined.
There are, in fact, 35 standard distance events but it is more complicated than that!
Those of us who have ever voted on the awards – I used to many years ago – will know that there is a bit of ‘distance fudging’ that takes place. The Romford management help out the judges by describing at least one of their standard distance events as a ‘sprint’. But it doesn’t end there.
The 714m PGR Golden Jacket – a unique and hugely popular event – is considered a ‘marathon’ because it is staged over eight bends. The traditional ‘six bend classic’, the St.Leger is run over 710 metres, and if we are to draw an imaginary line after Towcester’s 712m, maybe anything beyond that should be a marathon?
Now take a look at the lowest of the blue lines. Stayers trip or marathon? We’ve gone with the former.
Why?
Perhaps because the race was designed to honour the greatest stayer of the modern era. If they had wanted to honour the most famous marathon hound, they would have staged the Scurlogue Champ Memorial over 955m.
Going back to the distance imbalance, as a jumper you can be a Hurdle Greyhound of the Year winner, yet have only won one competition. (Indeed you are guaranteed a nomination). At the other end of the scale you have dogs like Brookside Richie and Fromposttopillar who each won two Cat One events but were overlooked.
(In 2022, Slick Sakina landed the Oaks and the Eclipse but missed out completely on any award.)
There seems to have been a growing emphasis on open race points scored but that ignores some of the nuances of top class racing.
Trainer Richard Rees said: “I was gutted that Laughil Jess didn’t get anything. Shouldn’t her achievements have been acknowledged?”
Perhaps the situation is best summed up by the letter received from an owner on Wednesday. He has asked for his name to be withheld but makes some valid points.
“Just out of my own interest, I worked out the points scored for all of the nominations for the GBGB awards and it is attached.
“It is all scientific with the awards purely based on the points scored for open races in 2023. I didn’t actually know that is how it worked and it is pretty easy to work out who has won what beforehand. Even the nominations were put out in the press in the order they finished in!
“I don’t think anyone at the awards knew that this was the method that was used as it is made out to be a “reveal” at the time.
“If this method is used without any objectivity then it is no wonder Space Jet didn’t win an award (apart from the special award that Hobbsy did off his own back and fair play to him for that) even though she would beat Bellmore Sally over a proper marathon distance.
“Another variable in the equation is what distances are considered for each category (rather than a 4 bend trip, a 6 bend trip, etc that are all different according to the track).
“I might have got it wrong in that it might be a coincidence that it is solely the points that created the results. Who knows?”
Saturdays return to Yarmouth
Yarmouth are to re-introduce Saturday night racing starting on March 23 and they plan to include open races. They will not be on the betting shop/digital service.
Promoter Simon Franklin said: “We are going to give it a go. I know the locals like Saturday nights, the restaurant will be open and the kennel strength is at a point where some trainers are moaning about a shortage of runs and having to race elsewhere.
“I don’t expect Saturdays to do much more than break even, but given the Monday and Wednesday schedule and the ‘four day rule’, it will give us extra flexibility, including with young pups joining the strength.
“We will probably run some ‘maiden monkeys’ supported by opens over other distances to run alongside the finals. It will depend a little bit on how many entries we receive.”
Opens
Saturday: Central Park • Doncaster • Monmore • Perry Barr
