Things are fairly quiet on the racing side at the moment with Sunderland as the next big target in July. We hope to have at least a couple of runners in Classic, possibly Clondoty Alex and California with our Category One winners Patchys Kerry and Billys Bullet heading for the Grand Prix.
PATCHYS KERRY Champion Stakes winner.
Photo: Steve Nash
On the subject of Billy, I was particularly pleased that he won the GWA Greyhound of the Month award for May. It is hard enough to win Category Ones with dogs who haven’t been injured; there can’t have been many who hadn’t won one until after their injury.
I was disappointed that Domino Storm went out of the Derby and the circumstances surround it, with the inside of the track not running. But that’s dog racing! We move on. As it turned out, the heat was won by Jaytee Jet and Storm finished half a length off qualifying behind Cloran Paddy who made the final. Storm has been laid off since, but we are hoping that she gets an invite for the Betfred Select Stakes.
We have plenty going on at Towcester. In fact, my only whinge is that there is too much going on. They are inundated with dogs and upto 120 runners aren’t getting on the card each week.
But the racing is excellent. They recently introduced a new 500 metre distance which is proving very popular. They are always prepared to try new ideas, and the live streaming of races is absolutely brilliant. If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.
There is a lot of talk about the new money that is coming into the sport via streaming. I have spoken to a few of the open race trainers and there is a lot of resentment that open racers are being ignored.
Look at Nottingham on Monday, Sheffield on Tuesday, Hove on Thursday and all three meetings are based on good quality open racing yet the streaming money is apparently being kept for the local graded runners. At Towcester, they look after the ‘away’ trainers as well as the locals.
