Liz McNair has withdrawn from the Premier Greyhound Racing Judgement Night meeting at Perry Barr. Her place will be taken by Richard Rees.
Assistant trainer Rab said: “We haven’t really got a maiden, or a sprinter so we couldn’t really have competed. We are not too disappointed, but the nice thing was, I was chatting to Charlie Rees yesterday and he was so excited about the possibility of taking part that I was delighted for him.”
The KSS owned kennel are gradually getting back into training after a winter break. Last Wednesday, Leger winner Havana Lover clocked 29.01 (-30) in a Central Park 480m trial. Champion Stakes winner Warzone Tom, returning from a potentially career ending injury, clocked 16.51 for the sprint with Havana Bale Out returning 16.38 (both -15).
Rab said: “The good news is, Tom seems to have come off sound. He and Bale Out will have 450 trials on Wednesday along with Fromposttopillar who had a slight infection in a toe last week. Lover will be going for a 500m open at Central Park on Sunday, though she will definitely need the run.”
Sadly, Queen Gaga’s racing career is in the balance after breaking a hock at Romford of Friday.
From the first litter sired by King Sheeran out of King Danni, Gaga was third to littermates Queen Pink and King Ezra in the recent British Bred Stayers Final at Monmore. She was also a finalist in the abandoned English Puppy Derby.
Rab said: “Of the litter, she was the one I fancied to be the best of them. She was three clear the other night and I am convinced that was going to be the run when she showed how good she is. She has been to (vet) Stefano this morning. If she doesn’t make a full recovery for racing, we will either breed with her ourselves or lease her out.”
Even by his standards, the (occasionally) excitable Scotsman can barely contain himself as the kennel’s three young litters get closer to their qualifying trials.
They comprise two Dec ’21 Droopys Sydney litters out of half sisters Queen Jessiej (8) and Queen Beyonce (5), plus a litter of eight Jan ’22s by King Turbo out of Queen Charlotte .
Mick Pacey has taken on the schooling of the Beyonce litter (Kings Memphis, Sydney, Capaldi, Combs, & Queen Shakira). The Jessiej and Charlotte litter have been largely schooled at Bicester with a couple of the dogs due to go to David Pruhs.
Rab collected three of the pups from Jeff Sealey’s schooling track on Sunday, and dropped off some others.
He said: “I took a couple of the dogs into the centre of the track and asked Jeff to put the hare around to show them what it was all about. They had never been to a track before and had no idea what was to happen but the hare hadn’t gone 20 yards and they went beserk. One tried to bite me and the other tried to bite through his lead. He had to stop the hare. In all my time I have never seen such keen pups; they were fanatical to chase.
“Mick Pacey said the same thing when he tried the Beyonce’s; he didn’t believe that they had never been on a track before. They are such naturals.”
Those first three bitches all did extremely promising times at Bicester with the quickest of the trio being a black bitch from the King Turbo litter. But there is one brindle bitch, out of Jessiej, who is really turning heads.
Rab said: “I honestly can’t remember her racing name, the paperwork is all away. But from the start, she was doing quicker times than King Elvis, and he’d had more handslips. Jeff knew straight away, he said to me, that after all of these years, he can tell from driving the hare, he doesn’t even need a stopwatch. According to Jeff, she is a bit special.
“It will be a while until they are all schooled and then we will distribute them out to three or four kennels to help us work out what we have. I can’t deny it though, these pups are giving us a real buzz.”
