All the latest from Crayford Greyhound Track
The track’s biggest race of the year, the Ladbrokes Golden
Jacket, starts here on Saturday night, February 2, with the six
first round heats.
With a winner’s prize of £15,000, we are guaranteed 36 of the
best greyhounds over the 714-metre distance and they will be
arriving from as far afield as Ireland.
In the interim, we run two weekend cards featuring trial races.
These events give our racing office the opportunity to view
potential entrants and the first was held on Saturday.
While the top dogs would normally expect to gain automatic
selection into the starting line-up, these trial races always seem
to produce some surprise packages which is good for the
competition.
A review of the weekend’s winners may, therefore, prove
beneficial if you plan to have an ante-post gamble.
On a track that was running slowly due to the weather
conditions, there were some decent performances. The outstanding
run came from Paulines Pride trained by Darren Whitton at Henlow
who recorded a win time of 46.02sec.
This time was adjusted down to 45.62 due to the track being 0.40
slow but that sort of time is capable of winning the event.
This greyhound now has every chance of being selected and will
be one to watch.
The other two trial races were won by local dog Crossfield Mia
and Lottes Girl, trained by Heather Dimmock at Peterborough, who
registered adjusted victory times of 46.35 and 46.18
respectively.
I would be surprised if Crossfield Mia gains entry. However,
Lottes Girl, who loves Crayford and is well known nationally, may
take her chance after a run that was reminiscent of her at her
best.
She is now four-and-a-half years old but she is certainly good
enough to take her chances in the big race if in top form and her
vast experience will hold her in good stead should she be
selected.
Interestingly, on the same card, we had other races over 714m so
look out for Lode Vanquish, who romped home in a time of 46.38 in
the Crayford Bookmakers Maiden Stakes race.
This finishing time was adjusted down to 45.98 and his trainer,
Diane Henry, must now seriously be looking to enter her dog for the
Jacket.
I cannot tell you too much about him as this was only his
second-ever race in the country. He ran at Henlow on January 10
over 550m when finishing fourth and then came here.
The dog will be three in March and on this evidence could be a
decent greyhound.
We have more trial races this weekend which I will report on in
next week’s column.
23/01/13