Door Latch drops out tamely…

…from the Peterborough Veteran’s Greyhound Derby in the semi-finals, along with the 5/2 favourite Purple Monkey, who could only finish 3rd.

Bang, goes my 16/1 shot who came out of the number one box very slowly over the 420 metres and ran a poor race into 4th place in 26.10 secs. I expected a better show from Door Latch but it looks likely that had he reached the Final he would have struggled against Driving Up Rob who won his heat in a very quick time of 25.37 sec (a 60/40 catogory dog by my calculations). I expect Driving Up Rob will be the new (worthy) favourite…

On to another topic… I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the Peterborough card for Saturday 8th, July because in the last race of the evening was a dog called Quick Shift.

Surely not the Irish greyhound, Quick Shift, that is listed in my last blog on the entries for the Irish Greyhound Derby at 100/1and a rating of 58/91?!! What was it doing an A1 contest at Peterborough?

I was at Peterborough dog racing on Saturday so I asked the trainer, Mr P. Ward, if it was the same dog; and it was! And its brother, Fat Man Scoops, from the same litter, was entered in the A3 race at 10 o’clock, that evening !

Both dogs had run a trial together and had done decent times at Peterborough. So I figured they would be a good betting proposition.
Especially with one of them entered in the Irish showpiece…

Quick Shift won at 6/4 and Fat Man Scoops won at 5/2 so I made a nice profit. Now that they are in England I will be surprised if the Irish Derby is still on the agenda; but you never know. I was impressed with both dogs and I will keep an eye out for them wherever they run.

Which brings me to the last part of this blog; and that is a selection from my short list of dogs I might bet in the Irish Derby. I haven’t made up my mind yet and time is getting short (Aug 2nd first rounds) if we are to get any of the fancy prices.

If it is any help, the track record for Shelbourne Park over 550 yards (the Derby distance) is held by Bypass Byway in 29.42sec (58/49 by my
standards).

A pointer may come from Droopys Electric (60/31) who is one I like at 20/1;and who is running in an important race in Ireland 12th July.

I will to back him early as one of my selections.

Come racing!!