Well I’m certainly expecting a cracking BGBF sponsored 78th British Bred Produce Stakes final tonight at Swindon! Six really good dogs are through to the final – all of them thoroughly deserve to take their place here, in what is really the most prestigious competition of the year for British breds! All British breeders, I think, harbour a little dream somewhere of winning the Produce Stakes – and even getting to the Final means so much!
Looking at the six going to the traps tonight, it is interesting to see we have two sets of litter siblings! Both of these litters are by Droopys Sydney, who is still having such influence over breeding! Firstly two litter brothers, Romeo Cypher and Romeo Crusade, trained by Tom Heilbron for David and Nicola Firmager – they are out of Firmager’s homebred Fabulous Skylar. Next, two bitches by Droopys Sydney again, Southfield Poppy and Southfield Petal, being out of Kevin Hutton’s super brood – and holder of the Dam of the best British Bred Litter 2021 and 2022 Award – Forest Natalee! Hutton bred this pair, and trains them for owner Mark Gilbert. Hutton also trains Union Rebel in the final – he is also by Droopys Sydney, but out of Peter Sandbach’s Union Secret, and was bred by Chantelle McNicholas up in County Durham. Mr & Mrs Sandbach run a pub in Plymouth, the Union Inn, hence their prefix!
The sixth finalist is Phil Milner’s Keefill Goose: by his partner Keely Cunningham’s Droopys Addition, and out of their Tarsna Atalanta. He was runner-up in his semi-final last week, and is expected to give a good account of himself in this final. Fastest overall in the semis was Romeo Crusade, who took the second semi in 28.06. Southfield Poppy won the first, posting 28.26.
It is a busy few months for owners and trainers of British breds! We saw our BGBF Oaks Final at Oxford earlier this month: it was won by Coppice Ella, a litter sister to Southfield Poppy and Petal – Ella won her first two rounds here in the Produce, and I for one was surprised that she didn’t qualify through to the final! I am sure we will see more from her in the future.
Hard on the heels of the Produce, we have the BGBF St Leger at Doncaster – over 661 metres rather than the standard here of 476, and for all-aged of course, we will see the semi-finals there on Saturday, and the Final is next week, Saturday 28th. It is running alongside the prestigious Yorkshire Derby at Doncaster – and I am delighted to see that there are five British breds through to the semis in that as well.
Then in October we have the BGBF Greyhound Stud Book Trophy at Towcester, with the Final on Sunday 20th, over the standard 500 – then in November we have the BGBF Sprint at Harlow, starting on the 13th, and also our Future Stars Puppy event over 450m at Sunderland. In December we have our BGBF British bred Derby, at Sheffield – and we’ll be looking forward to our Puppy Cup in January at Oxford!
The future of British breeding is looking positive, I’m delighted to say, and I do believe that owners are encouraged to breed by the range of good competitions the BGBF is able to put on now, supported by the BGRF, the British Greyhound Racing Fund, as well as ARC and SIS who assist us with funding. We are seeing some exceptional bitches move on to the breeding paddocks after their racing career is over, which is fantastic – and also a lot of very good dogs are being tried at stud. Sending broods to Ireland for mating doesn’t get any easier, so it is good to see dogs remaining over here at stud! Signet Denver I know is busy at the moment, and Tenpin – whose sire, interestingly, was British bred Romeo Recruit – has some already on the track and winning races.
The great thing as far as I’m concerned is that we are getting away from the opinion, held by too many for far too long, that if you want to win big races you need to buy Irish bred! If anyone still believed that, David Firmager’s Romeo Magico probably put paid to it when he won the Derby two years ago – then of course Romeo Command was runner-up last year! This year King Memphis was a Derby finalist, having won four of his earlier rounds, and he held the 500m track record at Towcester – then of course Queen Joni won the Derby Plate this year!
