GREYHOUND PREVIEW: Our greyhound pundit looks ahead to Perry Barr on Thursday, Warzone Tom’s Champion Stakes win and the Cowley Puppy Collar Final at Oxford on Friday.
Major night of action at Perry Barr
This Thursday evening Perry Barr will take centre stage as they host the finals of the Arena Racing Company (ARC) Scurry Gold Cup and The Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks.
The Scurry Gold Cup is up first over 275m and Gougane Jet has been outstanding thus far. A very warm favourite for the event when betting first came out, he remains unbeaten in the competition and has now won his last eight starts and is unbeaten over two bends in his career. He looks impossible to oppose. The dangers look to be on his inside with Ballymac Slapup in one and Newyork Sydney both very capable on their day. Newyork Sydney was slow away last week but came through to score, he has pace in abundance but will need to sharpen up his trapping. I will side with Gougane Jet to break fast and make all.
The Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks is next up and Slick Sakina and Fabulous Azurra remain unbeaten in this year’s competition. Slick Sakina has been electric at boxes in recent weeks and if she can repeat any of her last three performances she will lead and prove difficult to peg back. Her last three runs have been remarkably consistent clocking 28:07 twice either side of a 28:08 victory. Fabulous Azurra is similar on the clock but has not got the early zip of Sakina and this could be key. Distant Emma is likely to finish strongly but the early pacers could be gone beyond recall.
All the action is available on RPGTV on Thursday evening.
Warzone Tom Battles Bravely in Champion Stakes
Warzone Tom had to dig deep to overhaul the rank outsider Waste House Izzy when getting up late to win the £20,000 Champion Stakes. Sent to traps the 1.55 favourite he was led up by rank outsider Waste House Izzy who looked like causing a huge upset for most of the journey, leading passing the stands for the first time Izzy had a lead of almost three lengths on Warzone Tom with Aero Squeak a further three lengths behind. As Warzone closed into the fifth turn, he was forced to check slightly allowing Izzy to go on again by just over a length, Off the last turn Tom switched to the outside of the 25/1 outsider and got there in the dying strides to prevail by a neck with Droopys Garden running on well to take third place.
Also, on the Romford card on Friday was the final of the Coral Standard Trophy over 400m. This race was always going to be won and lost on the break and it was Rail McCoy who got the best break and led up early from our selection Ayle Blake, the order remained unchanged thereafter around the tight Romford venue and Rail McCoy ran out a deserving winner over Ayle Blake with Antigua Socks back in third ahead of Droopys Good.
Cowley Puppy Collar Final at Oxford
Friday night at Oxford will feature the final of the Racing Post Greyhound TV Cowley Puppy Collar and Fromposttopillar is sure to start a warm favourite. A record breaker in the previous round he was once again impressive when scoring last week after a tardy start. Currently an 8/15 chance to score, I would not be jumping in at that price, far from it. Although he is incredibly fast once hitting top stride, he may struggle to match some of his rivals in the early yards and is likely to need luck early to secure a clear run. A safer option for me is Lively Lauren from trap one, she has a perfect draw and can go up better than we have seen in recent week, at 9/2 she makes plenty of appeal to land the final due off at 21:04 which will be live on RPGTV.
Weekend’s Best Bets.
Thursday
Perry Barr: Slick Sakina. One unit win (21:11)
Friday
Oxford: Lively Lauren. One unit win (21:04)
