The eagerly anticipated opening round highlighted the best greyhounds from both sides of the Irish Sea, writes Peter Walker.
The first two nights had just about everything. We had shocks as Romeo Topcat, Ballymac Setanta and Bockos Diamond were amongst the fancied participants to lose out on qualification.
It did not take the competition long for the track record to be broken by Ballymac Duffle.
The last race on the first night was worth waiting for as he stopped the clock in 28.37 seconds.
The best performance on Saturday was by another in Liam Dowling’s kennel as Ballymac Deniro came remarkably from last to first.
He had to run past a wall of greyhounds around the outside before taking up the running by the time they reached the third bend.
Impressive
The puppy Underground Gold was also impressive as Romeo Tomcat failed to qualify as the field bunched up around the closing bends.
Proper Heiress gave a commanding performance but was kept up to his task to win heat 21.
From a neutral standpoint, the connections of six greyhounds will understandably feel aggrieved at missing out on fourth place despite quicker times — especially Eagles Respect.
He dipped under the 29-second mark yet failed to qualify, while others posted about a second slower and still progressed.
How can that be considered fair? A change of approach surely needs to be adopted in future when similar situations arise as they do in Ireland.
12 winning favourites
From a punter’s angle, the bookmakers endured 12 winning favourites (one joint) from 28 races.
However, they did gain 10 odds-on chance losers so not all bad news for the on-course layers.
The winners were spread out fairly evenly but more qualifiers came out of trap 2 with the fewest from trap 6.
Second round draw
Prior to the draw, Silverhill Adam was withdrawn and replaced with a vacant trap in heat 12.
Regrettably, Cheap Sandwiches was reported lame after the draw was made and may explain his previous below par performance.
Heats 1, 11, 15 and 16 have three winners competing against each other which includes Proper Heiress.
Racing room will be a premium in the opening three heats on Friday as they consist of five railers and a middle seed.
Certainly, several of the favourites look worth opposing although Hackney Corner and Ballymac Stud should oblige in their respective challenges albeit at cramped odds.
Ante-post selections
Glengar Silent suffered a difficult passage but just managed to get through in fourth. His trainer has altered his seeding from middle to wide which will hopefully prove beneficial and promote safer racing.
The ratings are still calculated on a race-by-race basis until the third round when all forty-eight are assessed collectively.
Prior to the second round, the top-rated greyhound and outright favourite is unsurprisingly now Ballymac Duffle.
However, track record holders have not fared well in recent derbies at Towcester – it is the equivalent of the ‘Crucible Curse’ in snooker at Sheffield.
Our best chance of a home trained success may still be Proper Heiress and is priced accordingly around the 12/1 mark.
However, Ballymac Kobe ran five spots quicker than ‘Harry’ and should not be underestimated.
He represents each-way value at 66/1 in the latest outright market.
