4th July 2017
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RACE RESULTS
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I'm sure everybody by now has heard what a truly brilliant night for the sport the Star Sports Greyhound Derby extravaganza was on Saturday at Towcester. To add to the already glowing reports will be just repeating what has already been said but I have to comment. To start with the whole competition has been a huge success from the first round where straight away there was a real buzz amongst owners, trainers and the media. For the owners they were treated with great facilities and many who had not been to Towcester before quickly put right the fact that the viewing was incredible, not as many had been led to believe that the track was too far away. Trainers who had said that the Derby should not have been at Towcester, and there were many including Seamus Cahill!, came and many retracted what they had previously thought or said. Then a certain few in the media who had also written and spoken that the Derby should have gone to Sheffield or Sittingbourne now admitted that they were wrong and Towcester was without doubt the rightful new home of our showpiece event of the year.
I could write a never ending blog on the whole event but I'm struggling with time at the moment as we are incredibly busy this week, so let's focus on Saturday night. Having experienced huge crowds back in the late eighties at Wimbledon when the Derby first moved from White City it has to be said how sad it was to only see around 2,000 people turn up a couple of years ago to a run down stadium like Wimbledon and to have the event organised by the worse culprits for bringing our sport to its knees in its history, namely the GRA, only the sponsorship from William Hill saved the event from even being staged. I can honestly say that I never thought I would see crowds of 5,000 + at a Greyhound meeting in my time but on Saturday I'm told there was over 6,000 at Towcester Racecourse and they assure me they never gave the event the full promotion that they were capable of doing as they wanted to see how the event coped with just the industry promotion. Their vision that next year this crowd could double is certainly not 'pie in the sky'
Those that previously said the Towcester lacked 'atmosphere' were so far off the mark it's untrue, wow! the night was unbelievable and it's been over 20 years since I experienced an atmosphere like Saturday night. that was on a par with many huge sporting events I've been lucky enough to attend, the place was quite simply 'rocking'!



Of course there will always be something that might need to be changed for next year and you can't please everybody all the time, that's life really. The pre Derby Racing Committee will meet up shortly to discuss anything that might improve on the overall experience but generally the Star Sports Greyhound Derby at Towcester has put the smiles back on people's faces, roll on 2018!!!!
In other news we head to Sunderland this Saturday as the William Hill Festival begins. We trialled Minglers Toure and Cotton Pants for the 450m Classic yesterday, sadly the lovely Chubbys Oak tore a gracilis muscle in a trial and will be out for at least eight weeks. Rubys Razzle went well in a 450m spin as did Garryglass Champ and they will be joined by Rubys Rascal in the Grand Prix over 640m.
All entries are in for our popular 5 To Follow competition and our first leaderboard will be up next week.
OPEN RACING
WIith the Derby taking centre stage on Saturday our other commitments probably went by slightly unnoticed but we had a good night at Romford on Friday where our amazing Calco Flyer bounced back to form with another scintillating victory in the heats of the Friday 500 Standard blasting out to beat the useful Young Lord in a superb 23.88. Swift Dartmoor was more workmanlike and won his heat in 24.23 and in form Garryglass Teddy also won over 575m in 35.56.
At Towcester Saturday night in the supporting Derby races we didn't start well with all three of our sprinters missing out in the final with Brynoffa Jasmin best when 3rd. Rubys Rascal was almost our banker of the meeting in the Stayers final but a slow start cost him dear and for a change he was slightly disappointing when only 4th. That was only short lived as Bruisers Bullet was quite outstanding winning the Invitation race in a brilliant 28.68 calc. The eight dog Dorando Marathon was one of the pre Derby Racing Committee's ideas that I sat on and what a race! for the record Aayamza Breeze came from last to first to beat the game Slick Strauss by a head in 55.76. Clondoty Alex fluffed his lines in the 480m 8 dog open but still ran well to finish 4th.
At Henlow on Sunday not as a prolific night as normal but we were still pleased when Roswell Romanov won first look at the track over 550m in a good 33.16 (+ 20) by 5 lengths.
TOWCESTER REVIEW
No winners on Tuesday but good runs from Tangled Upinblue (2nd) and Sundays News (3rd).
On Saturday morning Energize Honey got her head in front to win a A7 in 28.80
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK |
OPEN RACING - BRUISERS BULLET |
WHAT'S ON NEXT WEEK
A busy week with Towcester back to normal and runners at Hove (Thursday) and Romford (Friday), Sunderland's William Hill festival kicks off on Saturday and we will be back to a Henlow on Sunday.
WEBSITE RECOMMENDED BETS
For a change Rubys Rascal let us down on Saturday and I'm gutted I never put up the two winners but it was hard selecting tips without knowing the draw.
In the William Hill Festival at Sunderland I'm expecting good events for Rubys Razzle and Rascal in the Grand Prix and also Minglers Toure in the Classic.
RUBYS RASCAL - 2 pts ew ante post - William Hill Grand Prix - Sunderland - starts Saturday
RUBYS RAZZLE - 2 pts ew ante post - William Hill Classic - Sunderland - starts Saturday
MINGLERS TOURE - 2 pts ew ante post - William Hill Classsic - starts Saturday
ADVISED LAST WEEK
RUBYS RASCAL - 5 pts win - Towcester - Saturday - lost