Saturday’s Open Racing Action – UK & Ireland

Open race followers will be kept busy throughout the day with some quality action on both sides of the Irish sea.  The main event at Crayford this morning is the Ladbrokes.com Autumn Maiden Final worth £750 to the winner at 12.09.  Paul Donovan holds a strong hand with both ROMANTIC LAGOON and Sudden Spike holding strong chances but preference is for the former who should take plenty of beating with a similar start to last week.  Earlier on the card Robert Emery’s MALEFICENT looks to hold solid claims of landing the Ladbrokes.com Autumn marathon at 11.24.

Doncaster stage a 450m Puppy Final worth £500 to the winner at 3.58 and can go the way of Dave Lee’s Crayford raider EL TORNILLO who looks booked for a solo against the rail with main rival for outright honours Colliers Brynner sure to give him plenty of room with which to manoeuvrer on the run to the turn.  El Tornillo looked well at home around the circuit on what was his first look around last week and rates a solid bet to follow up.

Oxford stage a variety of opens on their afternoon card and the best bet looks to be Kevin Hutton’s FOREST ROANNA who can put a run of nine successive defeats behind her.  The empty trap to her left in the 650m stayers at 3.58 should see her getting plenty of room in the early stages and that can make all the difference.

Over in Ireland meanwhile it’s the second round stage of the St Leger at Limerick this evening.  Karol Ramsbottom’s SOBER GLORY was beaten at short odds in his first round heat but he should improve dramatically for what was his first competitive start since winning on Irish Derby Final night early in September at Shelbourne.  Glory is expected to get the job done in heat 4 at 7.57 as is Graham Holland’s NOMADIC NOVA in the very next heat at 8.12.  For a dog who turned 2 years of age in August Nova is very lightly raced but hopefully Graham Holland can begin to string a few races together with him and anything like a reproduction of last week’s first round demolition job should be enough to land heat 5.

Shelbourne Park stage a quality card with six of the countries leading bitch pups heading to traps for the 5000 euro to the winner RPGTV Puppy Oaks Final at 9.19.  Jennifer O’Donnell’s SCOOBY COUNTESS took a big step forward last week and can take full advantage of what could soon become a nice looking make up on the inside.  The O’Donnell family are far from strangers to success around this venue and they can land yet another piece of silverware here.  Just 30 minutes earlier at 8.51 the greyhounds go to traps for the 10,000 euro to the winner Paddy Merriman Memorial A1 525 Final.  It’s an extremely competitive affair and though only a very tentative selection Mark Robinson’s UNCLE TOM can smash out and make all.