Rab McNair has confirmed the KSS Syndicate’s Derby team of five runners: Fromposttopillar, Havana Allablaze, Havana Bale Out, Havana Lover and Warzone Tom.
On Sunday afternoon, Fromposttopillar became the fastest hound over the Towcester 500 metre course – original and updated – with a 28.61 solo trial. That is 11 spots quicker than Tyrur Shay’s old clock and 15 spots quicker than Swords Rex’s three hour old track record.
On Monday morning Rab reflected on the performance: “It is amazing to watch him run, because he doesn’t look as though he is moving that fast. To the eye, Havana Allablaze looked about three or four lengths faster. It looks effortless for Postie, but it took a bit out of him. I could hear him whistling a bit when he came off the track. But he needed the run; he only had two sprints in the last month.”
Boasting a unique racing record of three Category One wins in a UK career (plus one race, one win in Ireland), ‘Postie’ has been joined at the top of the ante post market by his paternal half brother Swords Rex.
Rab said: “I gather that there is a lot of chat around that some people think the dog is overrated. I can’t work out how they come to that conclusion because nobody knows how good the dog actually is, including me.
“The one thing I will guaratee is that he is a completely different greyhound to the one who began his career with us. He has grown up over the winter, he is just more focused. You can see how he reacts differently to things. Anybody who handles dogs will know what I mean.
“We now just need to get him fit. He was fine this morning but he is a dog who will take work. I wish we had the old Derby format to be honest, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday between the fourth round and semi finals. He would love it.”
As one of the harshest critics of the old Towcester starting traps, Rab was more than satisfied with what he found on Sunday.
He said: “The traps are far better than the old ones and at this stage I don’t see any reason for any bias against certain draws as we have had in the past, and as we had at Nottingham. The only moan I would have is that I think all six runners should be put in the traps together, not three at a time. Covid is over, there is no reason for it.
“As for the racing surface, absolutely superb.”
Having had a decent British bred pup or two go through his hands, even Rab admits to being a bit overwhelmed by a Saturday evening trial session at Towcester.
The four sprint trialists were King Combs (16.64), King Capaldi (16.73), King Sydney (16.18) and King Memphis (16.09).
To put those runs into some perspective, the race meeting’s only sprint, a D2 was won in 16.36.
But how about this. . . ?
Rab said: “So far in their careers, they all went to Bicester schooling track at 14 months and had one handslip each. They then went to Towcester and had one handslip each. Last week, they went in traps for the first time, and then on Saturday they did those runs. That is the total of their schooling, except for King Coombs. That run on Sunday was his first time ever in traps.”
Anybody who has handled greyhounds will comprehend the sheer madness of a puppy clocking 16.09 for the Towcester sprint on his second time ‘in boxes’.
The four brothers and one litter sister were being handled by Mick Pacey but were picked up by Rab on Monday and headed back home to Kent.
Rab said: “We’ve had good ones before like King Elvis and King Turbo, but they had a lot more done with them on the schooling track. We are actually a bit behind with these because I was slow getting the paperwork sorted. If someone told me that he had pups doing those runs with that amount of schooling, I would call him a liar.”
The quintet are from the Dec’21 litter by Droopys Sydney out of Queen Beyonce.
On Sunday, the first runner from the similarly aged Droopys Sydney/Queen Jessiej litter, Queen Sande, won on debut at Central Park clocking 16.87 (calc). The quickest trialist, Queen Joni (16.67) is still to make her debut. The rest of the litter are all still qualifying, along with a younger King Turbo litter out of Queen Charlotte.
Rab said: “I have brought the Beyonce’s home because I have to work out what we are going to do with them. It’s not going to be simple, particularly three weeks before the Derby.
“The rest are still with other trainers at Central Park where I can see how they are getting on. We couldn’t do any of this without trusted people and at Central Park we have Dan Brabon, Tony Collett and Mark Fenwick who I can call on to take pups in and give them the experience we need while we work out how good they are.
“It isn’t my idea. I know Nick Savva used to do something similar with his pups by sending them to the Bakewells at Hall Green. If he was prepared to send Westmead Hawk to run graded there, who am I to argue?”
