The perpetual and historic Steel City Cup
Gonna be a busy week!
Despite the opposition of the Oaks, Kent Derby and Champion Stakes, Sheffield Racing Manager Andrew Mascarenhas is confident of a full entry for the 36 runner Bresbet Steel City Cup which gets underway on Sunday.
He said: “It is looking pretty good at the moment. Although we only have 13 in the book at the moment, it doesn’t close until Wednesday.
“We’ve had a few contesting the trialstakes, and had a good trial session on Sunday with Kevin Hutton and Tom Heilbron trialling. Mark Wallis is planning to come, as is Kevin Ferguson and there are some decent local dogs too.
“I believe we were oversubscribed last year but the prize money has gone up from £8,000 to £11,500 to the winner. There would also be a £10,000 bonus if Gymcrack winner Wicky Ned was to achieve the double. His trial was cancelled last week though I believe it was only a minor setback and we are expecting him to be entered.”
Meanwhile at Central Park . .
The racing office remind trainers that entries for the Premier Greyhound Racing Kent Derby close at noon tomorrow (Tuesday, October 1).
For 36 greyhounds over 491m, the three-round Category One kicks off on Saturday with the race to succeed Churchfield Syd, last year’s winner, likely to be an intriguing one – albeit without the 2023 champion who is currently sidelined.
“Sadly, we’ll not be seeing Syd back for the Kent Derby this year – and hopefully he’s back on track soon for Richard (Rees) and the team – but we still expect a strong entry,” said racing manager Rob Killingbeck.
“Our new traps are in and working well, albeit we’re seeing faster times.
“King Memphis (28.73sec) went quickest on Saturday and is our ‘new’ track record holder, although as we know March On Freddie has also been flying round! He did 28.48sec in a trial at the weekend, but David (Mullins) is keen on Ireland I believe so sadly we don’t expect to see him in the entry, but are always here to help in terms of any race preparation.”
Worth £20,000 to the winner, the Premier Greyhound Racing Kent Derby will see six heats on Saturday, with the semi-finals the following week and the final, part of a gala card, on Saturday, October 19.”
And more from the Barr. . .
Dan Bradshaw, deputy racing manager at Perry Barr, is hopeful of a high-class entry for the Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks, which closes at 11am tomorrow (Tuesday, October 1).
For 72 runners over 480m, the bitches’ Classic starts on Saturday and follows hot on the heels of the Premier Greyhound Racing St Leger and M Lambe Construction Birmingham Cup which concluded on Saturday with an historic victory for Droopys Clue in the six-bend feature.
However, the Midlands track is not resting on its Laurels (yes, that’s another PB ever-present!) with the start of the Oaks this weekend – and time will tell whether the requisite number of entries will be met.
“It will be difficult to get the full 72 entries but we can only try,” added Bradshaw, who oversaw Saturday’s Category One double-header. “Martin’s (Seal, Perry Barr RM) away just now, although was here the previous week when the meeting had to be abandoned. It was a pleasure to oversee Saturday’s big meeting here – a real buzz.”
On the Oaks entry, he added: “We’ve probably the best two bitches in the UK entered in Avongate Venus and Druids Say So. Both trialled really well here and, all things being equal, will go far in the event.
“But we’ve a locally trained bitch called Chakra, trained by Tony Harmes, who we’re expecting to go well in competition. Tony won the Laurels earlier this year with Kilwest Ranger.”
The Silver Standard & Champion Stakes full form from Romford
New ROS Form due
Fifteen of the 19 GBGB racing offices will be operating a new form system from tomorrow.
The (less than snappily named) Racing Office System has been developed by Australian company Racing And Sports who took control of the National Form Database from PA early last year.
Racing and Sports are licensed by GBGB and in conjunction with the Board’s Tom Huntley, have developed a new software interface to succeed the Racetech System which will continue to be used at the four Entain tracks.
There will be few obvious changes for racegoers though in the short to medium term, the benefits of the new system should feed through to the racing offices.
They will include a live feed to update registrations including a direct link to Greyhound Racing Ireland, thus eliminating the need to manually input Irish form. In the longer term, the system is expected to incorporate a program to update the procedure for open race and competition trap draws.
However it seems unlikely that racing offices will dispense with the archaic grading card system. For more than 70 years, every racing office has been home to a wooden board with a space for a small paper card to represent each runner in trap order.
While the technology is more than capable of handling a more modern procedure, it seems that most racing managers are not.
RICKY HOLLOWAY was the man to follow at Crayford on Sunday night.
The local trainer had a magnificent seven winners on the open-race card, including with littermates Imonlytwink (23.09sec, 380m), Kates Honey (33.84sec, 540m) and Kates Dream (33.87sec, 540m).
The trio are from a Dolores Ruth-bred February 2023 batch by Ballymac Best out of Boylesportstwink.
Holloway also landed the spoils with Similar Display (33.68sec, 540m), Harlequin Ernie (23.35sec, 380mH), Miss Syd (45.54sec, 714m) and Patterdale Zorro (34.46sec, 540mH).
PATRICK JANSSENS almost enjoyed a clean sweep with his six runners at Towcester on Sunday.
Possibly Irish Derby-bound Barntick Bear led the way, the joint-track record holder producing a typically and brilliant strong-running performance to come from last to first and reel in Newinn Cloud (Mark Wallis) for a two and a quarter victory in 28.95sec (+20) – part of a Janssens five-timer on the day.
Janssens’ other winners were Crossfield Enzo (29.26sec, 500m), Romeo Steel (29.03sec, 500m), Droopys Plunge (29.29sec, 500m) and Bombay Ben (29.38sec, 500m), while the Janssens’ perfect six was foiled by Mark Wallis’s classy all-the-way winner Fabulous Sonique (28.84sec), who led home another Janssens runner in Droopys Doughnut into second.
Ready Freddie?
March On Freddie – Shelbourne bound.
DAVID MULLINS is looking to trial March On Freddie at Shelbourne Park on Saturday ahead of a bold bid for the BoyleSports Irish Derby with his young star.
“Ideally it’d be a sprint trial this weekend and a 550yd trial the following week,” said the Romford trainer of the George Watson-owned JenningsBet Puppy Classic champion, who he reports in fine fettle after an aborted trip to Hove last week.
“Unfortunately and sadly there was a fatal crash on the motorway and Julie (wife and assistant) couldn’t get there with Freddie, but Central Park were really accommodating on Saturday letting us solo trial there and he went well,” said Mullins after March On Freddie’s ‘track record’ 28.48sec from the new 491m traps.
“That told us he’s in good shape and we’re going to give it a go. It’s going to involve some serious travelling, of course, but we’re up for it and we’ve got a very nice young dog to go to work with,” added Mullins.
JOES NOTTINGHAM TIPS
***7.44 Nottingham – Thor Odinson
**8.36 Nottingham – Bogger Cash
*9.11 Nottingham – Blythe Blaze
Six open races at Nottingham this evening get another action packed week underway with the highlight being the £500 to the winner Arena Racing Company Sprint Trophy Final at 8.19pm.
At 7.44pm we have a Maiden Standard over 500m where newcomer Thor Odinson is the Nap of the evening and should take all the beating from trap four. A 28.31 at Perry Barr followed by a 30.23 first look over tonights trip stands him in good stead in a race where if he comes away he should dominate.
The Arena Racing Company Sprint Trophy Final at 8.19pm should go the way of Kylenoe Bilbo if breaking in similar fashion to last week. He flew out the boxes to post a fast 17.72 calculated and will take some stopping with a similar performance.
The next best is trap five Bogger Cash in the Maiden Super Stayers over 730m at 8.36pm. An impressive display over Shelbourne’s 750 yards back in August was his last outing in Ireland before moving to the UK and three smart 462m trials at Yarmouth including a 27.72 run served him well before being beat over 500m at Towcester last weekend. There wouldn’t be much early pace in the race and if Bogger Cash times the start he can set a big enough lead to hold on from the strong running Platinum Bea who will stay better than her rivals.
The two heats of the 500m Maiden competition at 9.11pm and 9.28pm can go the way of local runners Blythe Blaze and Wolf Gold and the final race of the evening at 9.46pm, The Nottingham Greyhounds 480m Trophy can see trap one Velvet Hurricane get the better of Bockos Thunder who has got a far from ideal draw out in trap six.
Opens
Friday: Romford
