With just four days to go before his first Derby final, Towcester racing manager Chris Page reckons the track got most things right, though he admits to at least one error he made himself.
The former Walthamstow grader said: “Overall, I am very satisfied with how things went but we will sit down at the end and work out whether things could have been done differently. To answer one query, we can’t have wider traps because of where they are situated.
“We could if they were moved forward but that would alter the distance. That would obviously be a different discussion. It has also been suggested that we could narrow the track, but again that is just an opinion and it would need to be discussed.
“I think we have blown away a lot of the preconceptions about how the track would run and which type of runner it would favour. What we have learned is that the best dogs do take a while to get to know the track.”
Is that because they need to learn that they can actually race the bend?
“That is quite possible, it would explain the improvement which has been apparent in a number of the runners.”
Would you have done anything differently?
Page says: “The only thing that I should have done is stuck to my guns that Hiya Butt is not a middle seed. I bowed to the opinion of connections and really shouldn’t have done. Thankfully, it didn’t cost any runner a qualifying spot, so I really got away with it.”
So if you had been grading the six Star Sports Derby finalists, how would you have placed them?
Page says: “Not a lot different to be honest. Clares Rocket would have been very hard to beat if he had drawn one. I think Hiya Butt benefits from trap one and I don’t think it makes a huge difference to the other runners. The pre-Derby predictions seem to have worked out too, that we would have four railers, one middle and one wide in the final.”
