Elwick Chris fastest in the Laurels semi-final
Next weekend’s Stan James Laurels final is unusual in that it will pit six different trainers against each other following last night’s semi-finals. This competition is usually dominated by one trainer, who has a number of runners in the final, but this year has been different and six different kennels will line up on Tuesday.
The front-runner after last night’s races has to be Buck’s Yahoo, who dominated from the front in the second semi-final. Chris Lund’s hound is a real force at Belle Vue and once again took to the four bends like a duck to water to blow away his rivals.
This all came after a pretty mediocre first few strides, as he failed to ping from the boxes, but found enough speed to gain the lead at the first bend. Ballymac Ace was right up with the leader until the second bend, where he suffered a bump which put paid to his chances. After Ballymac Ace’s bump, Bucks Yahoo strode away unchallenged to go on to score by two lengths in front of Charlie Lister’s Yahoo Jamie, who made some impressive late headway after a slow start.
Magna Buddy took the opening semi-final. Despite once again looking uncomfortable with an inside draw, Buddy had too much class for his rivals as he went onto win by half a length in front of November Weather. Jimmy Wright’s finalist has been given the red jacket in the final which can hardly inspire confidence in his followers, as in a high-class final he could come unstuck.
Elwick Chris ran the quickest time of the night in the third semi-final, coming home in a time of 27.76sec. The victory was made even more eye-catching as Michael Walsh’s runner suffered some trouble in running round the third bend, which suggest an improvement on his time could be achieved in the final. Hello Dino finished a neck second, which guaranteed his place in Tuesday’s final.
Draw for Tuesday’s £6,000 final (live on Sky Sports): 1 Magna Buddy, 2 Bucks Yahoo, 3 Elwick Chris, 4 Hello Dino, 5 Yahoo Jamie (m), 6 November Weather (w).
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