Richie set for productive retirement

Jimmy Fenwick has confirmed that Brookside Richie is now officially standing at stud and has covered his first two bitches.

Jimmy said: “The plan was always to retire him after the All England Cup and he has already covered False Alarm who is a sister to Antigua Sugar and Irenes Hope who is a sister to Ice On Fire.”

During a fabulous racing career that started with David Mullins before moving onto the Newcastle handler, Richie landed the Juvenile Classic, Romford Puppy Cup, the Northern Flat, a Birmingham Cup and a Select Stakes.

Fabulously bred, Richie is arguably Droopys Sydney’s most successful son. His dam, Droopys Greatest, was a litter sister to Droopys Verve and Droopys Biker.

Jimmy said: “There are very good dogs and there are special dogs. The very good dogs win races in fast times, the special dogs do it consistently in Category One finals. There aren’t many of them, obviously.

“Richie won a lot of races and was also beaten by some fabulous greyhounds. But when you can go to a track, first time, and not feel frightened of anything you may be against, dogs like that are very hard to find. As far as I am concerned, Richie had everything that you would be looking for in a stud dog.”

Anyone wishing to use Brookside Richie at stud can contact Jimmy on ‭07854 117366‬

One track – seven distances

With opens over seven different distances, Crayford’s Saturday morning PGR Golden Jacket card is unlikely to be surpassed as the most diverse open race meeting of the year.

In addition to the four finals (380m, 540m, 540mH, 714m), there are additonal opens over 380m, 380mH, 540m, 540mH, 874m (x2) and 1,048m.

Ahead of the big final, here are the thoughts of trainer Mark Wallis who sends out the first two in the betting for the Golden Jacket, Ballymac Taylor (5/2) and Coonough Crow (3/1) plus the favourite for the Bussey Memorial, Minnie Bullet (11/8).

Opens

(Will be updated as we receive them throughout the day)

Thursday:  Hove  •  Suffolk Downs  •  Swindon  •

Friday:   Oxford •  Romford

Saturday: Central Park  •  Doncaster  •  Monmore 

Sunday: Sheffield •  Towcester