Omuircheartaigh enjoyed the quickest time, while none of the favourites won, as the Premier Greyhound Racing Puppy Derby got underway at Monmore Green.
Tom Heilbron’s middle seed ran an impressive 28.16secs to triumph in one of the six first-round heats on Saturday lunchtime, with last month’s Northern Puppy Derby victor Clona Curly (Diane Henry) having to settle for second in that race.
Clona Curly was the 4/7 favourite but at least got through to next weekend’s semi-finals. Ricky Holloway’s Miss Syd, a 7/4F in race seven, and the Maxine Locke-trained Droopys Display, 6/4F in race 10, failed to advance having finished sixth and fourth respectively.
Nathan Hunt’s Icemans Girl, owned by superstar darts player Gerwyn Price, was victorious in her British bow and has drawn trap one again for the semis.
The first heat saw Patrick Janssens’ Droopys Supply finish well and take the spoils ahead of Getup Me Champ (Belinda Green) and wide runner Bramble Tango (Steven Anderson).
Union Rebel (Kevin Hutton) then burst out of the traps and led all the way to run out victorious in race eight – Deelish Nora (Patrick Janssens) and another British debutant in Untold Dollar (Carol Weatherall) in a dead-heat for second place.
Monmore trainer Brian Thompson had a 6/1 winner in the next heat as Vixons Filofax won by fourth lengths ahead of Clona Kody (Richard Rees) and Gary The Arb (Green), a convincing display in 28.37secs.
Icemans Girl (Hunt) managed to best Droopys Eunice (Locke) and Madabout Peck (Heilbron) in a hotly-contested race 10, while Hutton’s Coppice Ella finished third behind Clona Curly (Henry) and Omuircheartaigh (Heilbron) in heat five.
Hutton had his second winner in the final race as Ballymac Zari went home in 28.47 – Barntick Bear (Janssens) second and Droopys Auntie (Paul Young) third.
Omuircheartaigh runs from trap five once more in the first of three semi-finals next weekend. Vixons Filofax, who tends to prefer trap three or four, faces a tough job from trap one in the second semi while Clona Curly has trap five in semi-final three.
Semi-Final Trap Draws
