Gary Ferguson’s Pennylane Fionn took the evenings opening Star Sports Bookmakers & ARC English Greyhound Derby trial stakes in impressive fashion last night.
‘Fionn’ didn’t trap in brilliant fashion but showed an excellent turn of pace to the bend to take command. He ran the second bend poorly though and in the process allowed Matt Dartnall’s Mister Brentford to get into the race.
A good buckle along the back straight ensued but ‘Fionn’ regained control heading around the third turn and once he straightened up off the fourth he really began to stride out strongly on the run for home, eventually scoring by three lengths.
Gary said: “He’d run a good race in defeat when knocked out of the Gold Cup at Monmore in the heats. I’m absolutely delighted with that performance, there’s plenty yet to come from this lad don’t worry about that”.
When the betting makes a greyhound of the calibre of Look Like Power a 5/1 chance then you know it must be a good field.
Jimmy Fenwick’s dog trapped well from the white box and though crowding slightly as he made a move towards the rail on the run up. He had too much pace to the turn for the inside pairing of Savana Darn Hot and Paradise McIlroy and once taking command of the race at the first bend he was always going to be very difficult to beat.
Matt Dartnall’s Distant Village did make a good race of it though, running a much better first two bends than he did in last week’s trial. He showed excellent back straight pace to put himself into contention heading around the final two turns. But he blew the fourth bend badly though and this allowed Look Like Power to put the race to bed. It was a solid performance from Power but Village was extremely eye catching in defeat. He is running like a dog with plenty yet to show at Nottingham and remains firmly in the notebook.
The third trialstake was a very messy affair. Jim Daly’s Blue Tick George was easy in the market and drifted to 15/8 at the off in the face of support for Diane Henry’s Willowdale Shane.
George ran out an easy victor in the end, looking in an extremely unpromising position approaching the bend after a slow start.
But he took advantage of the trouble up the middle of the track to dart through on the inside as they rounded the first two turns and after seizing command the result was never in doubt.
Those who supported Shane in the betting will be cursing somewhat that George got the run that he did at the first bend or the result could have been entirely different.
Dave Mitchell of the Blue Tick Syndicate said: “It’s the Champion Stakes at Romford over 575m next for George. It’s a trip that we feel will suit him so hopefully he will get in and hopefully this trial stakes victory will be enough to see him in the 96 accepted for the Derby itself”.
The least said about trial stakes 4 the better. It was an extremely messy affair where all the dogs including Richard Rees’ winning greyhound Southwood Jet involved in serious first bend trouble.
Due to his inside berth, Jet managed to come off best and eventually won by more than seven lengths in 30.12, the time an indication of the troublesome nature of the race.
Trialstakes 5 was another messy affair which saw Ken Humphrey’s Wingman also benefit from trouble at the bend to skip clear.
The clock doesn’t lie though and Wingman’s 29.52 was the fastest run of the night, an extremely impressive run. Glenvale Gav ran another good race for Sylvia Oakes, finishing second.
The sixth and final trial stakes of the evening went to Carol Grasso’s Berties Blake. Trapping well and showing good early pace he looked all set for a comfortable victory for most of the race. Moving wide off the final turn though he gave supporters a scare when allowing Ken Humphre’s Master Reed to draw level. ‘Blake’ showed guts though, dug in deep and got up to win by half a length.
The trials (results below)
The pre meeting trial stakes already held plenty of interest but when news broke mid afternoon that the pencilled in 255m trial of Dilly Dilly was in fact a comeback trial for Jimmy Fenwick’s Ice On Fire, there was an immediate buzz amongst the greyhound racing world for what was to come.
Jimmy said: “I’d been to see Declan Merriman over in County Offaly in Ireland exactly 5 weeks after the injury occurred for a check up.
“Declan was delighted with the progress saying he believed it had healed up as good as he’d seen. In that previous five weeks I’d done exactly as Declan had said, paddocked regularly and allowing the dog to stretch the muscle.
“At the check up Declan told me you now need to start galloping him as soon as possible. I think he was a bit taken aback when I said come on then now’s as good a time as any and headed out to his 400 yard gallop.
“We let him off about halfway up but he took off, shooting by us and then heading back up the gallop before again coming back towards us at pace.
“It was great to see but the proof was going to be in the coming hours. We went back inside for a cup of tea and a bite to eat and allowed Fire to cool down for an hour or so. Declan was delighted, all seemed perfect.
“He told me to go away now and just crack on, do what you would do if you were preparing him to run in a competition and let’s keep our fingers crossed.
“His gallops at home over the last week have been superb, I’ve been delighted, he galloped last Thursday superbly well but I was galloping him Saturday and though we already had the trial pencilled in we had to see that he went as well Saturday as he did on the Thursday.
“He did and so here we are at Nottingham tonight. He’s not come out the traps at all tonight, I’d expect that though with it being his first run back and his first run over this trip here. I’m delighted with the run though, 15.19 on a normal track, the clock is a long standing one over this admittedly little used trip of 1484 but it was a classy bitch in Skate On who set it on a much faster track. I’m delighted but it’s a long road ahead”.
Asked about the secretive operation in swapping trial bookings Jimmy said “There’s a lot of pressure around the dog, we love the fact that he’s loved by so many people but we just felt we could get about things a little easier this week if there wasn’t so much talk about a potential comeback trial”.
Alison Kelly-Pilgrim’s Deanridge Rapid was known until recently as Ballymac Notisme where he recently reached the third round of the Bar One Sprint Cup at Dundalk before being eliminated from the Boylesports Irish Derby at Shelbourne at the first round stage.
This was ‘Rapid’s’ first appearance here in the UK. Moderately away he paced up well before being crowded at the turn by kennel mate Deanridge Blue who cut the bend from his trap 6 berth. ‘Rapid’ is a strong dog, weighing in at 36.4 kilo he muscled his way around the turn in front and really took off along the back straight. Pennys Bobby came through for second but Rapid was some 8 lengths clear at the finish, stopping the clock in a fastest of the session 29.83.
Next fastest and another impressive trial run came from Peter Harnden’s Salacres Pippy. ‘Pippy’ run a middle course from trap 3 in her solo and stopped the clock in 29.86. Peter reiterated that six bends is the plan for this strong running daughter of Good News.
Tony Collett’s Tommys Panther, a finalist in the Sussex Cup at Hove recently when finishing runner up to Bockos Doomie, was having his first sighter of the Derby track. He went up well in a 5.04 split and strode out nicely throughout to beat Jimmy Fenwick’s Last Stronghold by in 2991.
Alison Kelly-Pilgrim’s Deanridge Sirius lost any amount of time in running in his trial but given his time of 3051 you would need to be marking it up significantly to reach the point of being happy. He’s a nice dog though and I’m sure with a clearer passage next time out we will see a time much more fitting of a greyhound of his calibre.
One other trial of note came from the Alan Bellis trained Liberty Hawk. His recent trials have been ‘moderate’ to say the least for a dog of his class.
But Alan has kept the faith, experimenting with different things each week and has retained faith that the dog is still capable of top class runs. Though not back to his best just yet, his 29.06 effort over 480m was a step firmly in the right direction. He moved very well to the third turn but understandably on what was his first four bend run since an A1 appearance on the 19th June he tied up late.
Alan said: “I’ve taken a kilo off his back in the past week bringing him down from 34.5 to 33.5 this evening. He was too heavy, he’s getting there now, I might take a little more off for next week but this was a run definitely much more like it. I’ve got to see a bit more improvement on the clock but I’m positive that will come in the next run or two”.
Jumeirah Sprite who won heat and semi final of his All England Cup engagements at Newcastle recently before finishing fifth in the final itself was having his first look around Nottingham in a 305m sprint. He led out of the boxes and though going to the turn well he was headed by Seamus Cahill’s top grade/open class sprinter from Hove Sandside Galtee.
‘Sprite’ railed well though, took back command coming off the second turn and pulled away to win by a couple of lengths in 17.73. It was a very pleasing first look at the track and he pulled further clear the further they got to the pick up.
Richard Genders with Alfies Prince
Last but by no means least a special mention must go to Barry Denby’s Alfies Prince.
As written about in the star yesterday last nights A2 was to be the final race of Alfie’s special career.
Who could begrudge him that little bit of first bend luck he received here and if there had been a crowd in attendance then the roar as he hit the lead heading to the second bend would have been something to behold.
Alfie was closed down late and had to battle with all of the guts that have made him such a crowd pleaser over the years to hold off Sonny by a short head.
Alfie went out what he’s always been though, a winner.
Kennel hand and long term parader of Alfie Richard Genders was understandably delighted after the race declaring “What a way to go out, I really can’t believe it, he’s been a great dog. I’m not sure we’ll ever get another like him, what a ride he’s given us all !”.
