We have two left in the Star Sports English Derby and at this stage, I am just hoping for qualification with both of them.
Minglers Toure goes in the first heat on Saturday and it is a race all about early pace. I think he has a puncher’s chance if he traps in front. If he were to lead, I don’t know if he would be picked up, but it is a high quality race and everything would need to go his way.
Realistically, he doesn’t really see out the 500 metres at top speed and our long term ambitions with him are probably over 460-480m. For example he could make into a good Monmore 480 dog.
Bruisers Bullet goes in the second heat. We really don’t know how good he is, but with only eight races in his life, I would hope that he would be naturally open to further improvement.
His Irish card is far from stunning (one fourth place at Tralee) but his owners Billy and Steve bought him as a dog with potential. How shrewd were they?
Apart from ticking just about every box in his behaviour, he is a friendly calm dog, good grubber, good traveller, I like his running style too. I think he can run from any box and will still perform if things don’t go his way. He has had two exceptionally tough races so far and has not let us down.
Quite honestly, I wouldn’t swap him for any other dog in the Derby.
As for the dangers, there are so many of them. It is a great Derby. I think Clares Rocket, Tyrur Shay and Priceless Brandy look the pick of the Irish, and for the sake of the event, I would love to see all of them get through to the final. Of the British dogs, Droopys Buick was a worthy Greyhound of the Year – sheer class.
I am loving the whole event. I said before the competition that there might be a slight inside bias over 480 that doesn’t exist over the 500 metres course and the results bear that out. Of the trainers I have spoken to, a lot arrived very skeptical, but most have been won over.
We are a few winners behind our ‘win a day’ target for the year. We have actually hit a sticky spell. All those dogs who were winning by short heads a couple of months ago and now being beaten short heads.
I am not too concerned for a couple of reasons. The second half of the year always favours the stayers, which has suited us in recent years. Secondly, we have a string of nice young dogs coming through the graded strength at Towcester and will soon be on the open race scene.
Look out for Plan Ahead (Superior Product-Swinley Bottom, Oct 15) who has been beaten in his three races to date (A4, A5, A5) but has plenty of ability waiting to come out. The same goes for Vote Topper (Droopys Cain-Going Voting, Sep 15) who is an unraced pup who has qualified in trials at Towcester in 28.42.
I am monitoring Calco Flyer (125 races) to see how he returns at Romford on Friday. He is returning after being badly spiked and will hopefully run to form. But we know he is nearing the end of his career and as soon as it looks as though he isn’t enjoying it, we will call it a day.
Apart from keeping an eye on our own scores in the Trainers Championship, I always look to see how Patrick Janssens is getting on. Apart from being my assistant trainer for so many years, Patrick is also a close personal friend. To see Patrick up to number five on the table is absolutely brilliant. I would love to take some credit for what he has achieved but Patrick is his own man and does things his own way. I am particularly impressed at how he places his dogs. He surely has a great training future in front of him.
There is only one thing more frustrating than open races not filling – it is open races closing five or six days before they are due to be run.
Quite often I have entered dogs for one track, discovered that the race hasn’t filled, tried to enter at a different track for the following day, only to discover that their races closed the day before the first track’s. If more tracks followed Henlow’s example, and delayed closing races until three days before they are due to run, they would fill more opens and we would have fewer frustrated owners and trainers.
