Superstars Churchfield Syd and Droopys Clue shone once more as they clinched the Ladbrokes Gold Cup and Summer Stayers Classic respectively at Monmore Green.
Churchfield Syd (pictured with connections below) – trained by Hove’s Richard Rees – was the hot-favourite to take the Gold Cup crown on Saturday night and did not disappoint, leading from start to finish to take the £10,000 prize in style.
The Seamus Cahill-trained Droopys Clue (pictured with Theresa Cahill below)- the reigning GBGB Greyhound of the Year – then squeezed past Liz McNair’s Queen Georgia in a thrilling photo-finish in the Summer Stayers showpiece.
Churchfield Syd has been prolific at Monmore over the past couple of years and extended his superb record with yet another emphatic success.
Shooting out of the boxes, the wide runner never looked like losing – clocking a time of 28secs exact.
Droopys Clue’s triumph, for another Hove-based handler in Cahill, was not as cut-and-dried but still mightily impressive.
Queen Georgia looked to have the race won on the run-in, but Droopys Clue found that bit extra right at the death to prevail by a head and deny McNair a third successive Summer Stayers trophy.
Also on the night, Kim Billingham’s Magical Luna was victorious in an enthralling Marathon race over 900m – following up her recent track record-breaking run at Oxford with another brilliant performance.
Lion Heart, trained by Newcastle’s Carl Jackson, was an all-the-way winner in the Peter Billingham Memorial Trophy final.
In the @Monmoredogs Dash final, meanwhile, the spoils were shared as a dead-heat saw Knock Beeswing (Brian Thompson) and Tullymurry Dylan (Maxine Locke) cross the winning line at the exact same time, in 15.49secs.
