“I just hope that whoever is voting gets their facts right. I’ve heard two quotes on the TV in the last week. One was that Turbo was going for his third Category One win, when it was his fourth. The other was that ‘some of those wins were for British breds only’. Which ones might they be? These are people who will be voting on Greyhound of the Year.”
Assistant trainer Rab McNair and in reflective mode after his Kent born King Turbo collected his fourth major event of the year on Thursday night with a hard earned victory in the Coral Olympic Final at Hove.
With the GWA due to submit their votes for all the major award winners by 9am January 2nd, Rab McNair accepts that his job is over. It is now up to the greyhound writers to determine the award winner and while they are sometimes faced with a ‘nothing stood out’ dilemma, over the standard distance 2018 has produced two outstanding candidates in Dorotas Wildcat (Star Sports Derby, MSCM Eclipse), and King Turbo (Towcester Gold Cup, Monmore Gold Cup, Kent Derby and Olympic). Turbo also won the £2,000 British Bred event on Derby Final night).
So which of Turbo’s 26 races does Rab rate as his favourite.
He said: “It would have to be the Towcester Gold Cup. If you look at the quality of field, King Elvis, Barricane Tiger, King Kid, Calico Brandy and of course, the future Derby winner Dorotas Wildcat, it was exceptional. But he has been a great dog all year, unlucky in the semi finals of the Scottish Derby and the William Hill Classic. It has been a January to December effort.”
The McNairs, like their hands are now to take a short holiday, but plan to have all dogs available for a potential Trainers Championship meeting. There are also some more great pups to look forward to, particularly King Idol and Queen Cher, who are both May ’17 whelps by Eden The Kid out of Shaws Dilemma.
Rab says: “At this stage, they are as good as I have ever had. I’ve taken it easy with them but am really looking forward to next years. We also have a litter due to come in out of the paddocks in January be Leamaneigh Turbo out of Queen Asia. They are absolute beauties. We would be hoping for another good year.”
