Bond and Scolari lead Nick Saava’s Scottish Derby charge
Nick Saava knows a thing or two about training a Scottish Derby winner. Savva, with four titles, is now the only previous winner represented in the final and you would be a fool to rule him out of adding a fifth despite what the odds say.
Many had expected his dogs to perform well, but the achievement of having two lining up in the final was probably more than the most dedicated Savva follower had envisaged.
The name’s Bond, Westmead Bond and Savva would hope that he’s licensed to thrill. The outsider of the final on current form is being backed at around 16.0 on the exchanges. Saava’s charge was in fact pin-pointed as the trainers’ most fancied runner at the start of the competition being available with some firms at 12.0, but has scraped through every round in third position, qualifying in the opening heat and semi-final by a head.
Despite his scrappy performances’ he has had left some impressive dogs trailing in his wake. He disposed of Tyrur Speedy and Newlawn Class in the semi-finals, but that was more down to the two fancied runners enduring trouble in running rather than Westmead Bond outclassing his rivals. Westmead will need to return to the form which saw him progress to the Harolds Cross Bookmakers Puppy Derby Final in October last year to seriously mount a challenge, but stranger things have happened. Remember last year? Cabra Cool shocked the greyhound world to win the Scottish Derby at 25-1.
Westmead Scolari, according to the exchanges, is the most fancied of his two finalists and can be backed at around the 7-1 mark. Scolari has gone about his business very quietly in the competition, with the headlines usually being grabbed by others in his races. The elimination of ante-post favourite Jordansolutions in the opening heat of the competition took the shine of Westmead Scolari’s winning performance, which after going calculations read 29.19secs, the fifth quickest time in this year’s competition.
He ran a cracker in the second heats as well, but found Greenwell Viper in scintillating form. The time of 29.46secs was a solid effort considering how slow the track was running - favourite for the final, Nambisco, finished half a length back in third that day. The semi-final saw Scolari run very wide at the first bend which cost him the victory over Andrea Monarch in a time of 29.21secs. It is hard to see the form being reversed with Andrea Monarch in Saturday’s final, but the one thing you can be confident of Westmead Scolari doing is running a consistent race – each way backers take note.
If you fancy Savva to make it five Scottish Derbys, then it may be profitable to side with Scolari instead of Bond if you are looking for a view to a kill.
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