Adageo looking to serve up a feast for his owners in Derby final
When the food was being served at the Williamhill.com Derby lunch on Monday, the hosts would have been keeping one eye on the owners of Adageo. d**k and Ann Barfoot are not only very successful greyhound owners, they own a City restaurant called Sweetings, near Chancery Lane. Any failures made by Hills would have been noted by the Barfoots.
Thankfully the food, not surprisingly, was top notch and was worthy of a standing ovation from all the guests, including both the Barfoots.
Dolores Ruth, the trainer of rival hound Toomaline Jack, is a regular diner at Sweetings but the customer-landlord relationship will be forgotten about for 28 seconds on Saturday, as their dogs line up against each other to land the most prestigious prize in greyhound racing.
Adageo is the outsider in the field, but does have the Mark Wallis factor in his favour. The champion trainer steered 25-1 shot Kinda Ready to victory in last year’s derby final, and you wouldn’t want anyone else in your corner.
Wallis, who saw ante-post market favourite Eye Onthe Storm suffer a career ending injury in the heats, admitted the performance by Adageo has proved a fantastic boost.
“I must admit that it has probably taken Adageo's achievement in making the final to pick me up from the horrendous injury to our Eye Onthe Storm in the first round,” Wallis said on his website.
“I had to go to Wimbledon for the second batch of first round heats the night after his injury and, despite the heartfelt well wishes from all the other trainers and kennel hands, to say I didn't want to be there is an understatement. So thank you to Adageo for the pick me up.”
However, Adageo has less obvious credentials than last year’s champ, having been running in A6 races at Harlow earlier in the year, whilst Kinda Ready came runner up in the Puppy Derby. It’s probably unrealistic to even consider the possibility of lightning striking twice, but he should enjoy a clear run out wide, even if in reality he probably has three or four lengths to find.
You can guarantee that if Adageo defies his 50-1 odds, there will be a huge party taking place in a restaurant in Chancery Lane.
Bettor.com prediction – 6th
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