It has been a busy week with runners in the finals of the Romford Puppy Cup and the Scurry – we missed out on both – but there is plenty to look forward to.
I was delighted with Blissful Scolari’s 29.38 500 metre trial at Nottingham on Monday. He is going for the British bred race there later in the month and by any standards it was a good run. I was never confident that he ran Swindon well but that trial following a 17.69 run for the sprint suggests he could go well.
Scolari’s mum Little Flame has been a great bitch for us as a racer and a brood. Tin Soldier from her first litter is still winning opens. She produced Take The Crown in her first Westmead Hawk litter and Westmead Turbo in the repeat. I was gutted to hear that he had broken a hock at Peterborough.
We have two of the litter in Moyar Princess and Take The Crowd. They both have decent potential, Crowd in particular could make into a very nice dog but they have clearly inherited a bit more stamina than Turbo and we will have to give them time to grow up.
Julie and I visited Michael Gargan in Bolton this week to see Little Flame’s latest litter by Swift Hoffman. They will be off to Ireland for the next stage of their rearing shortly and obviously we have high hopes for them.
The Swift Hoffman/Little Flame pups – no rag is safe!
Looking at the rest of the week, I hope to have Vatican Venice in the Great North Run and Droopys Folly in the Angel of the North at Newcastle. We also have Newinn Louis in the Northern Puppy Derby and think we were very unlucky with Newinn Blitz.
He did the fastest sectional in the All England Cup but was badly hampered when almost clear in a tough heat.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Paul Smith, a popular punter and owner with us when we were at Monmore. Julie and I spent many great evenings in the company of Paul and his wife Julie and I was very sorry to hear than he had succumbed to prostate cancer. It is a particular cancer than is very close to home. It killed my father, and as a result, I have annual check-ups.
To take a comparatively young and popular man like Paul is a tragedy. I couldn’t attend his funeral on Friday because I was at Romford, but I understand that there was a huge turnout, a testament to his popularity. A wonderful man, it was a privilege to have known him.
