PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

The first Performance of the Week chart for three months and a first glimpse of some of the tracks attempting to find places for their open racers and there is no better place to start than Sheffield.

Because although sprinters find it hard to get the nomination but there would be no clearer cut winner than Sheffield’s Geelo Brezza with an exceptional 15.90 victory in a ‘Cat 1’ D1.

At Newcastle the prolific Look Like Power saw off a decent A1 field in the fastest time of the week, 28.68.

Tom Levers’ Absolute Eiei had the fastest Crayford 540 of the year prior to lockdown with a 33.58 run (+70), so this week’s 33.87 (+10) wasn’t too shoddy.

Oaks semi finalist Ballymac Desire clocked the fastest (calculated) time of her Monmore career with a 28.53 (-20) A1 win on Friday.

Belle Vue have only staged 19 races so far with the best by far the A1 won by Gary Griffiths’ Rockmount Buster who beat open racer Newinn Banger by a short head in a FOW, 27.90.

The Nottingham nomination was a close run thing with Swift Ferdia in the shake-up, but the nod went to the slightly quicker Somermead Guest with a 29.89 win on Monday. Look out too for October puppy Salacres Pebbles with a 30.62 six length win on debut.

Perry Barr’s highest quality race of the week went to John Lambe’s Crackling Blitz with a 28.59 run that will give the grader a few headaches. Good to see Sawpit Sunshine still holding his own in A1 despite rapidly closing in on his sixth birthday.

Swindon’s fastest time of the week was actually recorded in an A3 and went to near eight length winner, Fleece Em Jim – they probably didn’t, he was returned at 5-1.

At Yarmouth, Sporting Cossack, a younger full brother to Sporting Dave, was the only greyhound to break 28.00 for the 462 metres.

Henlow have staged two A1 events to date and they have both gone to open race winners. Maysthistlecrack won one, but it was another of the ‘Mays’ runners, Perrys Choice who went best with a 27.66 run.

We highlighted Guncase when he clocked a 28.26 (calc) 476m trial at Swindon before lockdown. He duly made his Harlow debut on Sunday and showed he looks an open race winner in waiting when clocked 25.89 for the 415m

Glory Vic has already had two outings since the re-start, the nomination goes to the first of them, a FOW 29.94 for Doncaster’s 483 metres. Kinsley’s sole A1 was won by Glenvale Bob, in a suitable quick A1 time of 27.83.

Fastest over the Hove 500m course when winning a decent quality A1 was Cheeky Bob with a 29.30 run, gradually stepping up on his two warm up trials over course and distance which were clocked at 29.75 and 29.55.

Prolific Sunderland top heat winner Abbys Attitude has better than a 1:3 strike rate and is a fitting POW selection for Yvonne Bell’s kennel.

Romford’s Swabys Luciejane missed out by one spot for the honour of the fastest 400 of the first week (to kennelmate Pantone Whisper), though she did complete a 10 week four-timer.

Among the outstanding training feats, few can match Spencer Mavrias for his handling of Courts Ad Lyn, winner of the fastest A1 of the week at Central Park in 29.34 (-30). Not a bad reappearance for a stayer whose last race was in January.

The options for Pelaw Grange have been somewhat limited – with only 10 races to date. Most notable among them was Black Olive whose 25.98 winning time was 23 lengths quicker than the slowest of the ten winners.