All the latest from Crayford Greyhound Track
My column tip last week, White Soks Roks, duly won the £15,000
Ladbrokes Golden Jacket on Saturday.
As I expected, the final was a two-dog race between Roks and
Droopys Xavier.
Roks quickly took an early advantage of a couple of lengths into
the first bend and while Droopys incurred a slight bump, he came
into the back straight only two lengths behind the leader.
The general opinion was that the best dog won and over 714m had
Droopys been good enough he would have picked up the leader but
full credit to both greyhounds for a tremendous final.
I understand from the dog’s connections that White Soks Roks
will be returning to Ireland to resume his racing career and they
also confirmed that ultimately he will go to stud.
He already had a decent race record before this event and won
his heat, semi-final and final here in good style.
The morning’s card also had four support open races won by Mash
Mad Snowy (Chief Ramsbottom Hurdle), Lode Vanquish (Golden Jacket
Invitation), Bridge Bandit (Peter Bussey Memorial) and Buglys
Billie (Golden Jacket Marathon).
If any of these return I would suggest to you that they should
win again.
The dog I had tipped for the Jacket a fortnight ago, Lode
Vanquish, was eliminated but returned to win the Invitation in a
time which on the day was faster than the Jacket winner’s time. A
case of bad luck or maybe just sore grapes on my part!
The focus must now shift back to our own graded racers. We have
had the usual flow of newcomers and the one that has caught my
attention has been Express Viking, trained by Patsy Cusack.
The dog had his first race here in January when, starting as
race favourite, he finished in second. He clearly likes this track
having now won his last two races in grades A7 and A5.
Having flown round in his A7 race for 23.64sec in the 380m he
was upgraded – not by the usual one but by two levels to A5.
He took the improvement in opposition in his stride, albeit by
the small margin of a head across the winning line in 24.25 but
that 23.64 suggests he may win again.
20/02/13