A full twelve race open card at Towcester this evening as the first round heats of the Sportystuff TV Puppy Cup and the Madri Excepcional Ladies Stakes take place over the 500m trip along with the heats of the Gain Nutrition Feed Challenge Cup over 712m.

The Richard Rees trained Droopys Mural heads the betting for the Puppy Cup along with the John Mullins trained Swift Iconic who are both available at around the 5/1 mark at the time of writing.  Two greyhounds with hugely contrasting styles and they should serve up a cracker in the very first heat of the night as Mural will look to reel in the early paced Iconic in the latter stages as they face each other in the very first heat of the night.  There is plenty of strength in depth however and the brother and sister pair of Distant Prince and Distant Emma may well be worth a second glance with both currently available at 33/1.  Coming from a promising litter who are held in high regard by their breeder Sean Flaherty there should be plenty of improvement to come from the pair and in the hands of Barry Draper should soon be winning races here in the UK.

The Newry Maestro Brendan Matthews sends Wide Open back across the Irish sea in an attempt to land the Madri Excepcional Ladies Stakes.  The Maiden Derby Finalist once again highlighted her undoubted class when landing her first round Derby heat in good style but a troubled run in the second round saw her eliminated from the competition.  She should be well suited by bitch events and will be difficult to hold with anything like a clear run.
Currently trading in the ante post market at 7/2 she’s sure to attract plenty of attention but she’ll need to be at her best with a whole host of talented ladies in opposition who are more than capable of making their presence felt.  Mark Wallis’s Antigua Cuddles is one such lady who was somewhat unluckily eliminated from the Derby at last week’s third round stage when finishing in fourth place.  Cuddles will be looking to get first run on her Irish trained opponent and hold off her strong late challenge when they meet in heat 3.
John Mullins Callmesteve is clear favourite for the Gain Nutrition Feed Challenge Cup at around the 2/1 mark and he’ll be looking to get off to the best possible start when he lines up in heat 3.  Mightily impressive when landing a course and distance open here on Derby third round night last week he looks sure to take a lot of beating in the competition but the likes of Jimmy Fenwick’s Bellmore Sally who opposes in his first round heat will be looking to make their presence felt.