GEELO BLISSFUL FASTEST AT NEWCASTLE

The remarkable Geelo Blissful became the fastest bitch ever to grace Newcastle’s 480m course with a 28.16 run on Thursday night. Ironically, it was just two days after she had lost her FOY for the similar trip at Sheffield, thanks to a brilliant run by Serious Hangover.

Blissful run was the seventh fastest ever, headed by Droopys Shearer’s track record of 27.92. Three of the six faster runs were by Droopys Expert and all were by males. Interestingly, Blissful’s arrival in the Perry kennel came as a direct result of Geelo Sapphire’s success as Bitch of the Year.

Carl said: “We invited breeder Shane O’Gorman to the awards night and he was telling us about Blissful who at that stage had only had two schooling trials. The deal was done on the night. From the beginning we thought she could be the best middle distance bitch we’ve ever had, but I am not sure I would ever have believed she could clocked 28.16 at Newcastle.

“She has won on five different tracks and she will be trialling at Nottingham next week with the Lowther Stakes in mind. She is virtually flawless, but if she has one slight weakness, it is that she takes a few looks at a track to produce. She showed that at Towcester and at Newcastle where she made big progress after ordinary trials. Looking further ahead, then obviously we are waiting for news on when Towcester intend to run the Oaks.”