Although our last representative, Antigua Romeo, went out in the quarter finals, I think it has been a high class Derby with the proof being the calibre of the semi finalists.
As I said before it started, why would anyone be surprised at how well Nottingham is suited to the Derby when you look at recent Eclipse finals. Two years ago Bubbly Bluebird beat Dorotas Wildcat and Bruisers Bullet in a three-way photo finish. The cream always comes to the top at Nottingham, though I also thought Towcester was an excellent Derby venue.
If I was pushed to pick a likely winner, it would probably be Magical Bale; he was mightily impressive in the quarter finals. But I think something should be said about Kevin Hutton. I have always taken particular pride in our big race winners in their third season and if you look at how Kevin has brought Wildcat back to his peak, he deserves enormous credit.
Our priority is to have a couple of winners on final night and have plenty of runners in the supporting competitions including Saleen Again and Antigua Rum in the puppy event. I was really pleased to see that they had planned for a 480 metre competition and we have Antigua Romeo and Brinkleys Poet in what looks a very tough event.
We also have Antigue Fire and Brigadier Bullet in the stayers competition. Hopefully, we will have Aayamza Breeze in the Dorando on final night plus something in the bitches race.
It would have been nice to have a small competition for the bitches and they may even have made the Dorando heats and final, given the number of top class marathon runners currently around.
We are more than 70 points behind Patrick (Janssens) in the trainers championship.
When I started doing this column I said that it is your top seven or eight dogs who contribute 85% of your points by reaching and winning big finals and Patrick’s top seven or eight runners are probably better than ours. To catch him, I think we need at least two Cat One winners and as I look around the kennel, I wonder where they will come from.
I really like the look of the new arrival Antigua Rum who ran third in the Kirby Memorial. He is still only a September pup and I would love to think he would progress to be a serious contender in the Puppy Classic. He did 29.71 (500) in a trial at Nottingham on Monday and will hopefully go well on Saturday.
I would like to think that Brinkleys Poet would have a decent chance in the Yarmouth Derby, though I am not kidding myself at the size of the task, it is always an ultra competitive event. I was a bit disappointed with his run behind Geelo Blissful at Nottingham last weekend, until I saw her winning time. It was only a length or so outside the track record.
Antigua Sands was particularly impressive at Hove on Thursday and will hopefully continue to improve, starting at Sheffield tonight. I hope there is a big win for her in a bitch’s race, though the likes of Geelo Blissful and Rab’s bitch (Queen Beyonce) look quite formidable.
Patrick and I are friends and although we put the worlds to rights, and we often deliver some of his Premarket goods for him, we haven’t talked much about the trainers championship.
Not that it is all about our two kennels. If Kevin was to win the Derby, he would be right in the reckoning with Seamus (Cahill) and Liz (McNair). In terms of ‘dog for dog’ does anybody have a stronger team than Hayley Keightley?
It will be an interesting end to the year.
