Droopys Gold finally landed the big race success befitting a dog of his ability when winning the all-Hove trained Coral Sussex Cup on Thursday evening.

Exceptional throughout the event, the blue Gold went from red in the final.

Seamus Cahill 1-2: DROOPYS GOLD (t1) leads round the first bend from defending champion and kennelmate Sporting Dave (t4) in the Coral Sussex Cup Final. Photo: © Steve Nash

It was a long overdue Cat One success for one of the most consistent top class runners on the open race circuit

It is 25 months since the Seamus Cahill trained hound reached his first major decider, the Mandy McCarthy Youngsters Stake at Towcester where he ran second to Calico Ranger. To follow were the Puppy Classic (3rd), Kent Derby (3rd), Henlow Derby (4th) followed by a big gap.

But it all looked like heading in tears following a trial at Towcester in February 2018. Gold came off the track with an exceptional clock of 27.94 for the 480 metres – and a limp.

Seamus said: “We had it x-rayed and there was a chip on the pisciform in his wrist. It looked like his career was over. You couldn’t operate on it, so we just gave him a long rest and left nature to take its course.”

Brave words – but everyone knows they don’t come back from chipped pisciforms!

It was eight months later before Gold had his first handslip at Hove. Two trials later, a 16.07 sprint and the kennel knew they had their star back.

The wins were soon flowing, 28.92 at Hove, 35.16 for 575m at Romford where he finished third in an Essex Vase semi final (two to qualify) and the injury continued to hold up.

2019 saw a string of fast wins but when Gold went out in the first round of the Star Sports/ARC/LPS Derby at Nottingham, just three months short of his fourth birthday, the odds were shortening on him ever collecting his merited Cat One success.

But the patience and skill of his handler combined with Gold’s resilience and natural ability saw Gold clock the fastest time of the year in the Sussex Cup semis, before showing every ounce of his class came to the surface as he beat his kennelmate and regular travelling companion in the final.

After the race, Seamus reflected on the dog’s career to date – which is exceptional – 35 wins from 64 races (55%), the majority in top class company. But what if. . .

He said: “You know you could say that he came back as good as new after all. But that might not be giving the dog enough credit.

“Before the injury, I was convinced that the dog was three or four lengths short of fitness and that would have put him in the top top class. Sadly we will never know.

“Going forward, we are looking at the Champion Stakes and possibly the Olympic. Sporting Dave ran a good race in second and we’ll be thinking probably about the Kent Derby. Yarmouth is an option, though I doubt I would travel with just the one runner.”

It was a third success for the kennel. Last year they won it with Sporting Dave. Six years ago, the star was Gold’s sire, Loughteen Blanco.

Adam Bunn (centre back) holds up the owners’ trophy as Ian Smyth presents the Sussex Cup to Seamus Cahill after Droopys Gold’s victory Photo: © Steve Nash