Bang!Goes my 66/1 shot in the...

... Greyhound Derby; Farloe Premier who got injured and had to be withdrawn. I thought I had a real chance with it when it reached the semi-finals but it wasn't to be. Ah! Well I've got one left, Loyal Honcho who has a chance of reaching the final. Fingers crossed!

I lost Phoenix Paddy with an injury and Eye Onthe Veto got thumped out of it as well. Such is dog racing...

I've done a couple of graphs to compare the 11 runners in the semi-finals; so take a look to see what you think the possible line up will be in the final.

My assessment of the graphs leads me to believe that Ullid Conor T2, Forest Scholes T3 and Westmead lord from graph No 1 will qualify; and Dilemmas Flight T3, Loyal Honcho T5 and Greenwell StormT6 on graph No 2 will do the business and reach the final. Although I think that Loyal Honcho is going to get a run for the money from Dilemmas Flight - it's not cut and dried yet even though Honcho is 7/4 favourite to win the derby.

Farloe Premier's injury has cost me a runner in the Dream Dogs Competition - I was counting on it getting 10 points.
We'll see what happens on Saturday when the semis are run at Wimbledon...

That's all for now.

Come racing!!

The Greyhound Derby is in full swing now…
…so, how are we doing?

Well a mixed bag actually, but that’s no surprise as it is devilishly difficult to get your dogs through to the final. Especially when you are going for big early prices looking for each way value!

After the 3rd round I’ve lost three of my original 6: Tyrur Lad, Barnfield On Air, and Eye Onthe Veto. I was disappointed to lose the last one because I really thought it could go all the way. It got badly bumped and that put it out of the race.

But going into the Quarter Finals I still have Phoenix Paddy, Farloe Premier and Loyal Honcho. I am a sucker when I see an improving dog, and I couldn’t resist an each way punt on Nervous Woody at 66/1 Ladbrokes price to try to make the final frame. It will add to my fun – or my misery. We’ll see…

Remember from my last blog I said I was entering six stables in the Dream Dogs Competition? Well I have one stable doing not too badly having 63 points. I must say, though, this competition is akin to stepping on land mines because as the dogs are eliminated you can keep the points you have accumulated but, obviously, you can’t accrue any more for the particular dog; so it is important to move into the next round with as many dogs as possible.

I have 4 dogs (out of six) left in my 5th stable (not surprisingly named dog-a-roo stable) and as there are 4 quarter final heats I was hoping that the 4 dogs would stay apart. But it wasn’t to be… two dogs are in the same race which means that I can only accrue 36 points instead of 40. If they all get through, they could get more points in the semi-finals and, hopefully, the final.

See how you need luck as well as judgement in dog racing!!

The 4 hopeful dogs in the dog-a-roo stable are:

Blonde Dino (trap 4; heat No1)
Zig Zag Dutchy (trap 4; heat No2)

And in the same race, heat 3:
Ullid Conor (trap2) and Phoenix Paddy (trap 5)

The heats are run at Wimbledon tomorrow, Tuesday 26th June. Wish me luck.

Come racing!!

I crashed in flames…

…in the Yarmouth TV Trophy.

The nearest I got with my 5 dogs was a miserable 3rd place with Shelbourne Holly in the heats; so I had no runner in the final; I lost 10 points on this exercise!

It was a tough call with dogs having run over several different distances before running in the 843m marathon. But that’s life..

The winner of the William Hill TV Trophy was Spiridon Louis, second Wise Susie and third Mitzie.

Ok having got that out of the way, what about the Blue Square Greyhound Derby over 480m at Wimbledon on 7th July? I always like to have a go at that. Well the early heats have begun which gives us some information to work on and the second round is on Friday 16th June and Saturday 17th June and I have done some work on trying to find a few hopeful, good price ante-post bets, to run with over the next few weeks.

On an earlier blog I said that Eye Onthe Veto might be a dog to consider if it ran in the Derby and Coral had it priced at 50/1 to win the competition at 1/4 odds e.w.1,2,3,4,5,6 places so I put 1 point e.w. without doing any research on it as I was confident it could put up a good show. Mind you it will have to be on its toes in heat 14 on Saturday as it is up against Geordie Parker, Iceman Ross and Zigzag Dutchy. It won’t be easy but it has to win up against good dogs if it has to win the trophy. I bet it to win its first heat at 6/4which it did, which gives me a ‘bet to nothing’ for the final.

But - there is always a ‘but’- I advocated betting Temple Lad at 50/1 for the Derby last year and it ran in the heats to no avail; and another of my long range selections at that time, Amarrillo Slim, is not running in the event; therefore I’m down 4 points before the Derby really begins . Ah! Well … too bad…

Blue Square and the Racing Post are running a really interesting competition in the Derby called Dream Dogs which has a top prize of £5000 in which I will invest £10. It will take a lot of luck to win it but it will give me enormous fun checking on the result of my selections. I will let you know how I am doing – good or bad.

And so to the Derby proper…

I have been through the form and allotted each of the dogs a rating and my price slot and then compared the bookies prices for ‘value’. This is what I intend to run with:-

Tyrur Lee 20/1 Ladbrokes. My price 7/1.

Farloe Premier 66/1 Betfred . My price 9/1.

Loyal Honcho 16/1 Coral. My price 9/1.

Barnfield On Air 14/1 Ladbrokes My price 9/1.

Eye On the Veto 50/1 Coral. My price 6/1.

Phoenix Paddy 7/1 Betfred. My price 5/1.


All, except Phoenix Paddy, 1 point ew.
Phoenix Paddy will be 2points win only.

I have included all these dogs in my selections for the Dream Dogs comp.

Best of luck with your own selections.

Come racing!!