We have five through to the Derby third round. The three more fancied runners are probably Domino Storm, Clondoty Alex and California, with Deanridge Madbye and Ginas Lad slightly bigger outsiders.
I suppose Domino Storm must be the leading fancy. She has seen it all and done it all before. My biggest concern is that she doesn’t get crowded out early by some of the bigger dogs. But I am very happy with her condition.
You cannot go into the last 48 with a dog who is not spot on knowing that you have three tough races in a week. I don’t think Storm is at the peak of her form yet, but I have been very pleased with her this week and would hope for an improved performance at the weekend.
California has pleasantly surprised me and has an advantage of being a wide runner. There are so many railers and that works against Clondoty Alex. He is a real battler and really drives the bends; I just hope he gets a draw somewhere near the fence. Ginas and Deanridge have done well so far, and you never know who will still be there, if any, in a couple of round time.
Of the other runners, you have to have been impressed by Ballymac Matt but the dog who really caught my eye was Droopys Latina. If he could take the bends better, he looks a sub-28.00 dog waiting to happen.
DOMINO STORM after setting a new 500m track record of 28.27. Sheffield 26th April 2016. Photo: Steve Nash
I have been asked what changes I would make to the Derby to improve it. The first obvious one would be to bulldoze the stadium and build another one on the same site. The Derby really needs to be in London in my opinion and everyone should get behind Paschal Taggart’s plan.
Secondly, we are back to the old conundrum about the number of entries. We had one dog, Roswell Iceman, go out in a ‘two to qualify’ heat, but that hasn’t influenced my opinion. I have always been against that system.
There are two options, either put in an extra round, or limit the number of entries to 192.
Personally, I would go for the latter but give trainers from January 1 to record a time, a bit like the Springbok used to be. Then, with trialstakes and trials, there really is no excuse.
I think the £250,000 first prize was a huge carrot for connections trying to win the event. But with my sensible head on, the changes this year to the prize money structure including better heat money, is a much more sensible method.
I took Sunday off this week and spent it with Sarah and the family. It was desperately needed, I didn’t get back from Towcester until about 2.15 am early on Sunday morning and without some help getting the dogs off the van and feeding them, I would have been there until dawn.
I decided to walk a greyhound on my day off. We have just retired Blue Moment and taken him home and I wanted to acclimatise him with the local pets in the village.
He was an absolute star and didn’t misbehave even once. It is ironic that he can be a bit of a character on the track but he is a lovely natured greyhound and seems to have settled in already.
There aren’t too many options for the dogs when the Derby is on, so you are then looking out for minor opens. Unfortunately everyone else is doing the same thing and you find yourself in a minor open race that would befit a category one final.
In the meantime, a lot of the younger runners have been performing well at Towcester and three in particular have impressed me.
I highlighted Rubys Rascal (Razldazl George-Swift Eva, Jul 14) at the start of the year as a young dog to follow and he hasn’t let me down. He has won his last three including the heats and final of a puppy stake at Towcester. Wait until he goes over six bends; he will be some greyhound.
His litter sister Rubys Razzle won an A4 by seven lengths on Friday, and she is another one destined for a top class staying career.
There is also a youngster called Blastoff Bonnie (Skywalker Puma-Blastoff Sally, Jul 14). She has won two from three including a P5 race at the weekend by five lengths in 28.30. Remember the name.
