Monmore have announced the dates for the Ladbrokes Puppy Derby which will take place on Saturday March 2nd, with semis a week later and the final set for Saturday March 16.
Prize money will be identical to last year, as won by Rising Brandy, with £12,500 to the winner with the 36 runner event (April ’17s and younger) carrying over £19K in prize money.
In fact, the track has already seen a number of potential entries having earlier sighters of the Wolverhampton track.
Quickest to date is Ted Soppitt’s Calzaghe Geraint (Knockglass Billy-Newinn Expert, Jun 17) with a calculated 28.49 run. Litter brother Newinn Buzz clocked 28.86 for Barrie Draper.
Paul Young’s 23.93 Romford winner Camps Star (Scolari Me Daddy-Droopys Isabella, Jul 17) “didn’t even look as though he was running” according to the racing office when recording 28.50 first look.
Inevitably, the ‘new local’ Kevin Hutton looks likely to be strongly represented with the unraced but tastily bred Ballymac Fargo (Ballymac Vicc-Coolavanny Angie, Jul 17) reckoned to be one for the notebook.
Monmore RM Tony Williamson reckons GBGB have chosen well by making Swift Keeper (Makeshift-Swift Krul, Jul 16) their Graded Greyhound of the Year.
The bare facts are that the Mel Baker trainer white and brindle began the year in A8 and went on to win on 15 occasions (plus 8 x 2nds) including seven A1 events from 46 races. But behind the stats there is a humanitarian tale.
Tony said: “Swift Keeper belongs to Abbie Knowles, though the whole family are involved. They dropped out of racing for a time and Keeper was their first dog back.
“They had been having a pretty tough year, Abbie was kicked in the face by a horse and faced a series of reconstructive operations and she also lost her mum. Keeper brought a great deal of happiness to the family and helped them through some tough times.”
Monmore’s Dog of the Month for December was Beara Haven (Romeo Recruit-Killinan Baby, Sep 16) owned by Mr MW Booth and trained by Brian Thompson. He ran five times for three wins (A3, A2, A1), a second and a third.
Bitch of the Month was Moyar Leaf (Swift Hoffman-Little Flame, May 16) with three wins and a sixth for Mo Cara Racing and trainer Craig Marston.
Some statistics for Monmore’s racing year in 2018. They staged 308 meetings, 4,038 races for 23,857 performances. 1,408 different graded runners were handled by 21 local trainers and the track was visited by 105 outside trainers with open race entries.
Congratulations are in order with recently promoted Stadium Manager Paul Mason marrying Sharon Dodwell from the stadium’s accounts office.
A reminder that the latest set of Winter Classics are due to take place on Saturday. They are one-offs over all distances and each worth £500 to the winners, £100 to runners-up and £60 ‘also rans’. Entries close on Wednesday.
Looking further ahead is the Joyce Lloyd Memorial, over 480m on February 9 and worth £1,000 for a one-of over 480m.
Then Laurence Jones Memorial meeting is scheduled for Saturday March 30, winners £600 over a variety of distances
