While much of the attention has understandably fallen on the home bred exploits of the Hutton Kennel, in last week’s breeding article, we made reference to Kim Gooding and her ‘Shockwaves’. Well on Monday night, the recent addition to the Nottingham training ranks was making headlines in her own right in the opening round of the BGBF British Breeders Stakes – writes Floyd Amphlett.

Five member of Kim’s Droopys Sydney/Southoe Silver litter were entered. They won half the heats between them, with the other two also qualifying for next week’s semi finals.

The star of the show was Shockwave Onyx who clocked the fastest time of the night in the third heat. Brother ‘Iolite’ won the last qualifier with the Richard Devenish trained Glatton Gianni completing the trio.

Although Kim describes herself and partner Dan as ‘Mr & Mrs Nobody’, that certainly isn’t true among the hare coursing crowd who dispersed when the sport was banned in 2004. The ‘Shockwaves’ (derived from the name of a ship), was a well respected prefix on the East Anglian coursing fields.

Kim dropped out of greyhounds for a while, but from her base near Spalding eventually moved into training a few trackers at Peterborough. She then bought a couple of track bred pups from Richard and Dilys, who were long term friends from the coursing fields.

Kim said: “We had a couple of Ballymac Godsend pups from Richard and Dilys and eventually decided we would like to rear some pups of our own which is why we leased Silver from them.”

Southoe Silver was descended from Richard and Dily’s Glencoe Star dam line that had produced St.Leger winner Alibulk Star and Summer Classic winner Glencoes Tom – plus a ton of other open race winners.

Dan shrewdly chose the rising young sire of the time, Droopys Sydney, and the litter of seven – four dogs and three bitches – were whelped in December 2019. One of the dogs, Glatton Gianni was promised to Richard and Dilys as part of the agreement.

As any long term observers of breeding will know, British bred pups tend to be more ‘slowly cooked’ than their Irish equivalents. This is usually because they are not for sale and so therefore also tend to be less intensively schooled. British bred pups are also much more harshly tested to achieve qualifying times.

This is borne out by the Southoe Silver litter. Although he ran third in the Produce Stakes Final and fourth in the British Bred Derby, Shockwave Onyx still only has 14 races on his card. Sister, Amber, who ran fourth in the Puppy Cup at Towcester, started out in A5 at Henlow and only has 17. Lolite made his debut in A7 at Henlow and has 12.

In fact only one of the magnificent seven has so far failed to win an open. Shockwave Ruby has been hampered by season and injury and has only raced nine times. Kim is confident that she will eventually complete the set. In fact both Ruby and sister Rookies Girl would have been entered at Nottingham but for niggles.

So how does Kim see the semi finals?

She said: “Onyx is obviously our best chance and would ideally like trap one, but he should run okay from three. Zircon has to have things his own way, but thankfully he is okay on the outside. I’m happy with Lolite, the only one who looks badly drawn is Amber.”

Before then, Kim will be giving the first sprint solos to her latest litter, eight October pups by Droopys Cain out of Brinkley Rosie.

She said: “They are all ‘Shockwaves’ except for Sasenach and Outlander who are owned by Sean O’Connor who owns the dam. Like all the others, they have been very lightly schooled, from halfway on the schooling track, then a handslip at Nottingham, and now sprint solos. I have to say that Nottingham have been absolutely fabulous helping us get these pups on the track.”

Sadly, there won’t be any more ‘Southoes’ though. The seven year old was retired after one litter and is living out her days as a family pet.