“When I saw her breeding, I looked at the price and thought I have to have one of them”

When Glenn Lynas and partner Jill Sutherest were reflecting on giving up training around a year ago, little did they know that they had two phenomenal young bitches still in the rearing paddocks who would put a whole new perspective on the game.

When Witton Razl (T5) crossed the winning line in the final of the BGBF British Bred Maiden Derby, she was the ultimate example of the golden rules of breeding – you need judgement and luck in equal quantites . . .

Glenn said: “I bought her in at three months. I saw her on the internet and couldn’t believe the price, £1,250 for a daughter of Droopys Sydney out of a very well bred open racer like Ballymac Deirdre, who is out of one of Liam Dowling’s top broods, Ballymac Raz. She was bred and reared by Simon and Michaela Kneaffsey from Horton and I guess my luck was picking her from the three still left.

“I am a massive fan of Droopys Sydney pups, we have a few in the kennel and they are perfect in every way. They are well behaved and do everything right. I knew we had something special with Witton Razl from the very beginning, she did 27.59 in her first trial at Sunderland and I decided to look after her.

“She had picked up a minor shoulder injury which Robert Meek checked over for me and said it was nothing serious. But I saw the maiden Derby coming up and didn’t want to risk her winning an open. She then did 28.53 at Newcastle in the heats, which was also her first ever race and I knew she could only imrove. She has only had the four races and could be as good as I’ve ever had. ”

However, Witton Razl wasn’t the kennel’s only success on the night. The kennel’s home bred Witton Venus (T2), an October daugter of Laughil Blake out of former kennel star Witton Derecho, went even quicker with a 28.81 run.

Glenn said: “Venus is two months younger than Razl and there is nothing between them. The dogs in the litter have been a lot slower to come to hand, but she has done everything right from day one.”

Unsurprisingly, Glenn is very upbeat about British breeding and thinks the industry should take a golden opportunity.

He said: “Great credit to Liz at the GBBF for all the work she has done. If you look around at some of the litters being bred in this country, it is just phenomenal. They might not be big in numbers, but the quality is out of this world. Look at what Kevin Hutton is doing, and the quality bitches that Jimmy Wright is breeding from. Rab (McNair) has had a tough time getting bitches in whelp, but he’ll be back.

“To really kick on, I would love to see some more support for British breeding from ARC. The extra money that they put into racing means we were able to carry on; hopefully they can do something with British breeding. I also have to thank the Sunderland and Newcastle racing offices. Sunderland gave me all the support I needed with handslips for the pups and Newcastle have been brilliant with trials. I have been back for the last six weeks and they have never refused me a trial. For British breeding to do well, you need that kind of support.”

Newcastle GM Ian Walton said: “I thought it was a very good final with a very good winner of great potential, with an excellent supporting card. When the runners for the Maiden Derby were first announced I took some abuse from people saying ‘there isn’t a lot of quality in there’.

“But you can’t have it both way. It is what it says, a maiden for British breds. You are not going to get 20 top class entries. What it does do hopefully is encourage British breeders to produce pups. They need the incentive and knowing that competitions like this will be staged and ‘winnable’ can only encourage them.”