Charlie Lister is regarded as the King of Glasgow by many locals, having won the Scottish Derby on five occasions, four of them being in the past seven years. Lister’s last claim to Scottish Derby glory was back in 2007, where Fear Haribo (10-11 favourite) clocked a time of 28.76secs on final night to purse a cool prize of £25,000. This year could and may well be the year where Lister regains his crown, as the ante-post markets have already ranked him as a favourite ahead of Tuesday's opening heats.
The markets are currently favouring the Betfred Eclipse runner-up Jordansoilution at 8-1. Jordansoilution last represented Lister in The Betfair Trainers’ Championship on Tuesday, where he produced a victory by four lengths. He has since been trialing at Shawfield, and looks pretty good, clocking an impressive time of 17.93secs in a 300m workout sprin.
There will be a total of eight heats on Tuesday night, which will see the top three in each qualify through into Saturday’s second round.
Heat One: 19:54
Jordansoilution will be running in the opening heat, the race will be run across the usual distance of 480m. In the race he will be up against some tough competition and needs to trap well in order to secure an easy passage to the final. Wilfy Wells (66-1) will be amongst the traps in the opener and looks to be another qualifier. Wells gave new handler Jimmy Wright his first victory as he came first in earlier trials clocking a time of 29.57secs.
T1 – Tamna King. T2 – Jordansolutions, T3 – Wilfy Wells, T4 – Bridge Diamond, T5 – Westmead Scolari, T6 – Final Washington.
Heat Two: 20:07
Trainer Pat Flaherty’s Greenwell River (33-1) will be running in the second heat of the night. River is the current track record holder at Shawfield as he managed to clock 28.66secs, which knocked three spots off the previous record which was set by Paul Hennessy’s Tyrur Kieran in 2008.
Mussles Galore (200-1) will also be in the second heat, he clocked a time of 29.75secs to take second in last week’s trials, I have a feeling he will improve on each occasion and may just well qualify on the day.
Killieford Fire (50-1) produced a best time of 29.43secs around the 480m and should provide quite a fight on the night to make it through to the next round.
T1 – Mussels Galore, T2 – Face my Fortune, T3 – Bikerton Morry, T4 – Flors Power, T5 – Killeford Fire, T6 – Greenwell River.
Heat Three: 20:20
Paul Hennesy’s De Ex Factor (16-1) recently won the Tote Gold Cup at Shelbourne, he is a runner which has great reserves and can burst with great pace, he clocked an excellent time of 29.45secs in his trials and will be one to look out for in the third heat.
T1 – Amazing Value, T2 – Ardkill Ernie, T3 – Ballymac Rebound, T4 – Greenwell Shadow, T5 – De Ex Factor, T6 – Honey Trampas.
Heat Four: 20:33
Heat four will release its traps to unleash Beaming Dilemma (50-1), the first to represent Irish trainer Pat Buckley.
T1 – Extremely Ard, T2 – Hill Tipoki, T3 – Beaming Dilemma, T4 – Miss Majestic, T5 – Brave Lee Roye, T6 – Blood of Kings.
Heat Five: 20:47
Lister’s Farloe Lee (20-1) would be a good back for heat five, as he looked good in trials with kennelmate Tyrur Speedy. Trainer Gary Carmichael’s Sniper Petra (33-1) who made all the headlines last week should prove the only threat, as im sure will be out seeking the spotlight once again.
T1 – Droopys Kentucky, T2 – Nambisco, T3 – Sniper Petra, T4 – Melview Ace, T5 – Ardkill Tunoco, T6 – Farloe Lee.
Heat Six: 20:59
Julie Bateson returns to Shawfield with Plough Lane (100-1) taking a shot at qualification. Lane should stand a fairfly decent chance in the race. Sunoak Crystal has also been impressive in last weeks trials.
T1 – Plough Lane, T2 – Ardera Monarch, T3 – Ardmayle Courier, T4 – November Weather, T5 – Sunoak Crystal, T6 – Shanaway Rex.
Heat Seven: 21:12
Irish raider Newlawn Class is up there amongst the favourites in the ante-post market and is also a hot favourite in the forthcoming Wimbledon Derby with the likes of Champion trainer Mark Wallis’s Eye Onthe Storm. Wallis will not be competing in the Scottish Derby, which is a bit of a loss, as it would have been great to see Storm compete against Class.
Class is currently a 10-1 shot at taking the Derby at Shawfield and will be up against Lister’s pair, Was Not Me (66-1) and Tyrur Speedy (16-1). Speedy has already made an impact clocking 28.95secs in trials, and as result has had odds slashed by local Layer at Shawfield, George Shaw.
T1 – Tyrur Speedy, T2 – Micky Robby, T3 – Ronaldos Goal, T4 – Was Not Me, T5 – Newlawn Class, T6 – Drumcrow General.
Heat Eight: 21:25
Yahoo Jamie (10-1) who is the second ante-post market favourite will be competing against the new star of the track Yorkshire Star (25-1), who is yet to be beaten and has proved can sprint well across the 480m.
T1 – Yahoo Jaime, T2 – Westmead Bond, T3 – Target Classic, T4 – Yorkshire Star, T5 – Greenwell Viper, T6 – St Louis Spirit.
With only days to go for it all to kick off, which trainer will prevail to Scottish Derby glory, does Paul Hennessy really have De EX Factor? Will Pat Buckley make a statement to the world to why his one of the industries highest paid trainers? Or will it be Charlie Lister who regains his title. Lister certainly stands a very strong chance with the pack he has brought along to Shawfield. I wouldn’t be surprised if the final night produced a card with half the field representing him.
All the odds shown are the current market odds for the greyhound to be crowned the new Scottish Derby champion, who will you be backing? My money is on Newlawn Class.
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