The Derby is done and dusted, thankfully it turned out to be a fascinating and competitive competition. Now it is onwards to the Cat 1 St. Leger and the Cat 2 Birmingham Cup (big thanks to RPGTV and John Lambe for their sponsorship). Some interesting trials stakes tonight, hopefully they should reveal some clues for when both competitions get up and running next Thursday Evening.

I will get the excuses in first with regards to picking winners! Some dogs have never been around the track before and some have never ran as far as 710 metres, anyway here goes:-

 

6.41 Nah Then Bella has been round, she’s posted a decent enough 28.73, with the benefit of that first look she should be able to get that down to around a calculated 28.50 and that might do the job tonight.

 

6.59 I found this race particularly hard to work out, so, I looked for some value and ended up with Fabulous Marina.

7.16 Dolla Wisecrack has home advantage, Coolavanny Messi has blistering early when he’s on top of his game, Notoutheway has been in at the deep end lately, I will side with Dolla Wisecrack tonight.

 

7.34 Avastorm looks to be the classy one in this line up and is therefore my choice.

 

7.51 Dettori Day yes it’s only a trial but his 28.39 first look at the track sticks out like a sore thumb and he’s the selection.

8.06 The only course and distance form is the very respectable 43.52 of Paradise Ally and she’s a determined type, however, the talented Kingsbrook Glyn often gets underrated and he’s my selection (Waikiki Bullet is very much the “dark horse” over this trip).

 

8.21 A hot race, Castell Stevie is hard to beat drawn in the red on his home track, Bowers Jet is fast when he puts it altogether. A cracking 28.45 first look was posted by Robbie On Fire, but, an even smarter first look was posted by Blackstone Milo and he’s taken to lead up and win.

 

8.36 Another hot race, Skilful Daisy has strong staying form in Ireland, she’s been round the track and seems to perform well from the red box.

Blue Tick George is a solid reliable performer and is now a winner over both 4 and 6 bends, he hasn’t been to Perry Barr before though, Smallmead is seriously fast and she’s won over the 714 at Crayford but that’s a different kettle of fish to the 710 at Perry Barr.

She too lacks a look round, Affirmed is a really likeable dog, looks a bit gangly at times but he can definitely run, obviously he’s very familiar with Perry Barr, Aayamza Royale similar in some ways to Affirmed as in she tends to come late and might prefer a longer trip nowadays, Drahbeg Dash he would appear to be well drawn tonight, he knows the track very well, he can post smart times over the 480 and 660, but, he’s not had a race for a couple of months (picked up a niggle in a trial at Monmore) and we truthfully don’t know if he gets the 710 metres, he’s still my pick though in the hope that he gets the 710, if this race was over the 660 I’d be much more confident; here’s to a clean run race and may the best dog on the night win.