The RPGTV National Sprint Semi Finals took place at Nottingham on Monday night writes Mark Pierrepont.
The first of which went the way of Michelle Brown’s bang in form Signature Callum. Considering that the sport came to a halt during the original covid enforced lockdown earlier this year, it’s some achievement to have guided Callum to what was his 14th victory of the year in open class company.
The highlight of the year so far for Callum would be his short head victory in the Ladbrokes Rose Bowl at Crayford in October. If he were to emerge victorious in next week’s final it would be a fitting end to what has been yet another terrific year for a supremely talented and well-handled greyhound.
He needed a break here with a huge amount of early pace drawn inside him as you would expect at this stage of the National Sprint, he came out under the bars (7.03) and with less than a length separating all six greyhounds at the first bend.
He used his position on the wide outside well once again to skip round and drop second to Ian Walkers Dark Magic (7.02) as they headed into the straight.
Callum picked up his rival late on to score by 3/4 length in 18.02. Ian Walkers dog wasn’t the fastest into stride from his trap one berth, a notoriously poor box to break from in Nottingham sprints, he showed excellent gears to the bend before showing bravery to run the turn and claim the lead by the second bend.
Paul Sallis’s Kelseys Phoenix (7.00) was a narrow leader at my first bend marker, however with just 0.05 spots separating the first five runners and only 0.02 back to Atarah King something had to give. Kelsey was squeezed up, forced wide off the turn and went from leader to facing a battle for qualification. He battled well though and just got the upper hand of Carl Perry’s Geelo Coney (7.05) for that third and final place in next week’s final.
Narrowly out of luck for qualification Carl Perry gained some well-earned success in the second semi-final as his Geelo Gold Dust (6.82) scored by half a length from Loggies Lito (6.80) in 17.86.
Marginally led out of the boxes by Richard Joyce’s Feather Breeze (6.94) drawn in trap 5 and Julie Bateson’s Glengar Ronan (6.96), Perry’s bitch soon showed the superior early foot to take a good lead despite moving middle from her trap 2 berth.
Loggies Lito for Simon Harms had been averagely away but soon drove out of the pack to set his sights on the leader, just about gaining a narrow lead at the turn he appeared to come together with Gold Dust and was forced off the turn. At this point Gold Dust appeared to be away and gone however was taken wide off the turn with a hare being driven very much shorter than had been the case in previous weeks.
Despite this Gold Dust managed to straighten up and hold off the rallying challenge of Lito with Feather Breeze running a game race despite not getting a clear run at any stage to claim the final spot in next week’s main event.
