I am delighted that two such well known enthusiasts Steve Fluin and John Turner have agreed to join the committee to determine the future location for the Derby. But can someone explain why there is no trainer involvement?
A trainer would have a different perspective on what would be a good venue and not canvassing the opinion of somebody like Nick Savva, Charlie Lister or Mark Wallis, who have about a dozen Derbys between them, was a wasted opportunity.
I have been asked to choose my perfect venue and if I had to choose three, they would probably be Hove, Nottingham and Perry Barr/Monmore. Given Clive Feltham has said the Derby won’t go to one of his tracks, then it would be Monmore.
In lots of ways, I would love to see the race at Hove which is probably my favourite track; I like everything about the place. But I am concerned that the location would put off a lot of the northern runners. The Midlands seems a much better plan and I would just edge it to Nottingham. The 500m trip, which has a better run-up than the 480 would be perfect.
“There has been a lot of talk about Towcester and I can see why. The facilities are fabulous but I am concerned that there is no air-conditioning in the kennels. Secondly, the racing circuit was built to facilitate eight dog fields and personally, I don’t think it is ideal for a Derby course.”
I was delighted with Fearsome Phantom’s win on the Nottingham undercard on Tuesday. I had desperately wanted him to be in the Leger but he finished sore when he ran at Doncaster and his first trial back, a 28.93 (480m) at Monmore suggested he wasn’t ready when the Leger started. Since then, he ran a calculated 28.42 in his next trial and I knew he was ready for a race.
Having said all of that, I was as surprised as anybody that he ran on so well back over six bends. He can only come on for the race. But he is a big dog, over 36 kilos, and we are really thinking about next year with him; possibly the Regency.
It is so satisfying when a dog comes back well from injury. A good example is Swift Carter who ran second in the Gymcrack and third in the Eclipse last year but then broke a middle toe on a hind leg and the toe had to be amputated. I have never had a dog return to racing with that particular injury and I had almost given up hope.
But he is a tenacious little dog and he got through to Saturday’s final of the Kai Laidlaw St.Mungo Cup Final on Saturday along with Newinn Blitz. Neither is particularly well drawn, Carter would like to be a lot closer to the rails, and they have time to find on the heats, but Shawfield is a lucky track for us.
Besides I would just love to win that fabulous trophy!
It has been a fairly average year so far. Apart from the impossible tasking of replacing Swift Hoffman and Newinn Yolo, we have been ravaged by sickness on several occasions.
But you always looking to the future and we have a couple of exciting young pups currently qualifying. They were both at Monmore today (Wednesday).
Azzurri Genesis is an unraced May ’15 Superior Model pup sent over by Ian Greaves. He did 15.39 in a Monmore trial last week and had his first 480 today. The official comment was ‘eased badly sough’ and he still did 28.93 on going rated .40 slow. I was thrilled, he really could be anything. At the same session we also had Cuba Libre, an April pup who we bought out of Thurles. He did a 28.59 this week after a 28.54 in his previous trial so hopefully we have another decent one there too.
