As every trainer knows, you get favourites in the kennel. That doesn’t mean that you don’t look after them all the same, but some dogs just have a particular character that means you take a particular shine to them. Ferryforth Fran is one of those dogs. He’s a smasher.
To see him win the St.Leger last week was so thrilling because he seems to have spent his life being under-rated.
When he first arrived in the kennel we had him for sale on the website for £7,000 and it was ages before Alan Morton came forward to buy him. In fact, we were getting anxious that he was sitting around the kennel and I was on the point of buying him myself.
He never really put a foot wrong in opens and S1 at Towcester with two wins and six seconds in his early races. Commentator Matt Chapman nicknamed him ‘Old Plodder’ and that was really the way he looked.
He reached last year’s St Leger final as a big priced outsider and then represented Towcester in the successful Track Championship winning team at Perry Barr.
This year he won the Stayers Championship at Monmore and I fancied him to go well at Doncaster in the St. Leger. Unfortunately there was a hare breakdown before his semi final and the dogs were kept in the centre of the track when the hare was tested. He is a bit nervy and had lost his semi final before he got to the traps.
When he got to the St.Leger final at Wimbledon, I thought he was the best drawn dog in the race and I thought he had run well to win.
Sadly, he doesn’t seem to have been given much credit; the general consensus was that Fizzypop Buddy had run badly. Unfortunately that is greyhound racing. Maybe the quick run between semis and final didn’t suit him but it certainly did Fran no harm.
The saddest thing for me is that Buddy then left June Harvey. I don’t know any of the circumstances but you can get very attached to these dogs.
As for Fran, he will be running at Romford on Friday and if he goes well, he’ll be entered in the Coral Essex Vase.
He ran the track quite well before but didn’t get the 750 metres. He should be okay over the 575 and you never know. It might be three Category One events. . .and we all know what that means. Even for Old Plodder.
We went a bunch of runners to Belle Vue for trials on Tuesday morning with the RPGTV Oaks and Laurels in mind.
The plan is for Clondoty Alex to go in the Laurels and he clocked 28.12 (-20) for the 470m.
The Oaks team will be bigger: Ballymac Shirley, Saffrons Anna, Airforce Duchess, Mashmad Eyebrows, and of course Domino Storm.
I thought she ran below form at Hove and you are always wondering whether age is finally catching up with her.
But she went pretty well at Belle Vue with a 28.12 (-20) trial after a quick start and we are hoping she is coming back to form. I seem to remember that she took a dip in form last year and then came good again in December.
You know when it is time for them to retire, they just lose their enthusiasm to race and there is no sign of that with Storm. But it will be her last competition and I hope she can go out on a high.
We are also planning a campaign for the Essex Vase headed by Roswell Romanov.
We have had a series of dogs who have really taken to Romford’s 575 trip and Romanov is the latest in a distinguished line.
It has taken a while for him to blossom but he now looks the real deal. Although he wasn’t cheap at £7,000, to be a leading fancy, if not the ante post favourite for a Category One event, it isn’t too pricy either.
Last year’s final, named after Mitch Millward was one of the most emotional nights that I can remember and it it also marked the final race of Adageo Bob.
Bob recently returned south to pursue his stud career with Dave Lee and Ernie Gaskin. He arrived back from John Marriott looking in absolute pristine condition and has had a few bitches already.
I am hoping that we can manage one more big win this year. This is the third time that we have won seven Category One competitions in the same year; we have never managed eight.
We are actually up to 47 ‘Cat 1s’ to date, plus another 13 when Linda (Jones) had the licence. I feel so blessed, but the novelty never wears off. It’s all about the next one.
I see a lot being made of open race competitions failing to fill. It isn’t hard to understand why.
I end up subsidising probably half our open race trips and I imagine a lot of kennels are the same.
If I send a couple of dogs I can only charge the owners £20 or £25 for each but by the time we have paid staff and diesel I can easily be £50 or £60 out of pocket. If you charge any more, you lose the dogs and/or the owners are unhappy.
There is a balancing up, for example if I send ten to Romford on a Friday and take them myself I would come out in front, but I would still probably reduce the cost for each dog.
Basically, open racing doesn’t pay.
It had been a great week and I was so looking forward to going to Shelbourne Park for the Night of Star but it ended in disaster when we lost California after an accident at the bend.
I won’t go into detail but it was the most horrendous injury that I have seen with the poor dog breaking a foreleg.
Injuries are part of the game but even the serious ones are very rarely fatal. In fact, we have had over 8,000 runners since we last had a dog put to sleep but we really had no choice.
Everyone was devastated, not least my son Daniel. California was his favourite dog. The people at Shelbourne could not have been kinder but it still doesn’t get over the numbness.
I would have gladly swapped the Leger win to have California in the van on the way home.
