“Aye, the old dodge ran well enough to win his fifth Category One final” said Rab McNair with a heavy overtone of sarcasm.
He was referring to another superb performance from his home bred star King Turbo who produced a brilliant front running performance to land the Coral Winter Derby at Hove on Thursday night. Turbo ran from one with Sussex Cup winner Sporting Dave in two. . .
KING TURBO (t1) wins the Coral Winter Derby Final from Sporting Dave (t2) and King Dylan (t5). Photo: © Steve Nash
Rab said: “Before talking about the race, I think it is important to acknowledge what a fantastic effort it was by Coral to put the race on.
“Even before the race, Brendan (Keough, KSS Syndicate) was telling me what a great job the Hove management had done with the restaurant and how brilliantly they had been looked after. And that would be an unusual thing for Brendan to comment on.
“Between putting on this new competition and making the owners feel wanted again is hugely important for all of us in this industry.
“I thought Turbo ran the way that he needed to, in order to win it. As Brendan said to Seamus Cahill after the race ‘you certainly made us work for it’
“As far as Turbo is concerned, I don’t have anything in particular lined up. We won’t be going to Scotland, I’ll just keep looking around and see if anything crops up. The dog is now in great shape and could probably run again this morning.
“We actually have a few decisions to make in the next six weeks about which of the dogs we move on. Apart from Turbo and Elvis, we have Beyonce due back. King Sheeran (hock) is galloping well and King Lennon’s toe problem looks to have been sorted.
“I hope to run Queen Anna in the Silver Salver and then wait for her to come into season and be mated.
“I have a greyhound trainer licence which restricts me to twelve dogs and we have more pups due to be schooled in the coming weeks and another litter not far away. So we will have some decisions to make.”
Winter Derby winner King Turbo with Rab McNair and Brendan Keogh. Photo: © Steve Nash
