The dates for The Star Sports, ARC and LPS Greyhound Derby 2019 were finally announced on Sunday evening at the gala GBGB Awards evening at the Park Plaza hotel in London. With the first round set to take place over the two nights of Friday, 24 May and Saturday, 25 May and the final itself due to be staged on Saturday, 29 June, connections dreaming of Derby glory can now set about making plans while supporters of the game will no doubt be busy planning their weekend itineraries.
Greyhound racing superstar Dorotas Wildcat was voted Standard Distance Greyhound of the Year on and, subsequently, a well deserved 2018 Greyhound Of The Year award duly followed. An outstanding victory in The Star Sports English Greyhound Derby at Towcester last year was followed by a devastating display of pace when winning the MSCM Ltd Eclipse Final at the new Derby venue itself.
Trainer Kevin Hutton must have been delighted when Nottingham was announced as the new venue for the Derby, Wildcat runs the track as well as any greyhound in training and rightfully heads the ante-post market at between 12/1 and 16/1 at this stage. I spoke to Kevin at the weekend and he is delighted with ‘The Cat’ at present. He said he had his first trial back for the year when recording 16.16sec (normal) for Swindon’s 285 metres sprint trip last week and moved very well. On Tuesday, he returned a calculated 16.20sec over that trip.
The initial target this year will be the £10,000 to the winner three round Coral Winter Derby over Hove’s new 490 metres trip and set to get underway on Thursday, 21 February. Kevin commented: “We intended to give him a longer break, but he was absolutely out of his skin and desperate for some work, so we thought we’d get on with things. So long as he takes to the track well in his trials, the Winter Derby is the initial target. All being well, we’ll keep him lightly raced thereafter in preparation for his Derby defence.”
MAGICAL BALE – Photo: © Steve Nash
Hutton is sure to be well represented in the Derby but one other greyhound that I felt was of particular note was Magical Bale (40/1 generally). A winner of the ECC Timber Puppy Derby at Towcester in 2017, he was fancied to go well in the Derby last year. After running out an impressive winner of his first round heat, Bale was then eliminated in the second round, finishing fourth in his heat. He lost his way a little after that run but there has never been any doubting his class and he was sent over to Patrick Guilfoyle for a crack at the Boylesports Irish Derby.
Winning his first and second round heats impressively, Magical Bale qualified for the final when winning his semi-final in 29.66sec holding off the strong late challenge of Jaytee Taylor. He ran an awesome race in the final when runner up, beaten a length and a half behind Ballyanne Sim, clocking 29.38sec in the process. He has been off the card since, but his two trials this month around Shelbourne Park have been right out the top drawer including an 18.44sec solo effort over the 350 yards trip, which was just three spots outside the long standing track record of Sycamore Dan.
He then followed that up with a 28.21sec effort over the 525 yards trip on Saturday. No doubt he’d have been in need of that blow out so that has to go down as a terrific effort at this stage. Kevin tells me that the plan is for Magical Bale to have a tilt at the Easter Cup before returning to him when, hopefully, it will be all systems go towards an effort at this years Derby.
In the past, I have described the Angela Harrison-trained Droopys Verve (16/1 – 20/1) as a Rolls Royce of a greyhound and that is exactly what he is. In full flow there is no finer sight and the way in which he runs the bends is nothing short of breath-taking. Put into the ante-post book as the current second favourite, Verve will be hoping to avenge defeats behind Dorotas Wildcat in both the Derby and Eclipse finals of 2018. He lost nothing in defeat on either occasion and could he just be coming into his peak year at a time when Wildcat is getting that little bit older?
DROOPYS EXPERT – Photo: Steve Nash
It will be a very interesting battle between two outstanding greyhounds this year. Jimmy Wright, assistant to Angela and leading member of the Alnwick based team, tells me that the initial aim for 2019 will be the Betfred Steel City Cup at Sheffield. That will also be the target for 2017 William Hill All England Cup winner Droopys Expert (40/1 – 50/1) whilst the Racing Post Juvenile, to be staged at the same venue, will be the target for Droopys Trapper (33/1 – 40/1), the beaten favourite in the 2018 William Hill Puppy Derby final at Newcastle.
Roxholme Nidge is third favourite in the ante-post books priced at between 20/1 and 25/1. I spoke to Mark Keightley, husband and assistant to trainer Hayley and though Mark was obviously delighted to see Nidge comeback from serious injury to run out an impressive winner of the Betfred Steel City Cup at Sheffield in October last year, he couldn’t hide his disappointment at having missed the Derby itself. He said: “The distance at Nottingham is undoubtedly on the stiff side for Nidge, but he must take his chance.
ROXHOLME NIDGE – Photo: © Steve Nash
I was hugely disappointed to miss last year’s Derby with Nidge. Everything about Towcester would have been ideal for the dog and I felt he’d have gone there with a huge chance. That’s gone though and we’ll head to Sheffield to defend his Steel City Cup crown before hopefully heading to Nottingham.”
Legendary Irish trainer Brendan Matthews is no stranger to English soil and his son Damian tells me that they intend on raiding Nottingham in an effort to land the famous trophy this year. Innocent Times ran brilliantly to reach the semi-final stage of the competition at Towcester in 2018. He commented: “We’ll definitely be targeting the competition with at least two, maybe three greyhounds. As always, it will be tough but we have big commitments back home in Ireland so it will be a case of travelling back and forth for each round. Hopefully we can go one better than last year and reach the final, then who knows, anything can happen. Our initial concentrations are on Clonmel and, after that, we’ll then sit down and make our plans for the coming months.”
The 2019 running of The Greyhound Derby looks sure to be well supported, not just by British-based greyhounds but the Irish entry looks sure to be full of quality as well. With a straight forward enough trip across to Nottingham, around a track and a trip that should suit many of the leading Irish-trained greyhounds – the temptation to try and wrestle the famous trophy out of the hands of Kevin Hutton and his team looks sure to appeal to many.
Competition entry forms and tickets for the competition throughout are expected to be available from Nottingham stadium from Monday, 25 February.
