Giovanni back in winning form, takes Romford Puppy Cup Final
It wasn’t his fastest time of the Puppy Cup, but a time of 24.08 seconds was enough for Rayvin Giovanni to win the £8000 Puppy Cup Final at Romford Friday. His fastest time came in the semi-final, a mark
of 23.79, in a race he lost to Bright Redcliffe.
Giovanni is one of the most exciting young racers the greyhound circuit has seen in a while. Including the Puppy Cup Final he has 10 wins in 13 races, and he finished second in the other three races. After
dominating in the first round of the Puppy Cup he headed into the semi-final as a huge 2-5 favourite, but Bright Redcliffe managed to get a better start, and hold off Giovanni to win the race by 1¾ lengths.
Redcliffe has a promising career ahead of him himself with five wins in eight races.
Despite beating Giovanni in the semi-finals, few expected Redcliffe to repeat that performance. On Friday Giovanni still came in as the race favourite, 4-5 this time, and he rewarded punters that stayed
true to him with a first place finish.
Redcliff saw his odds improve to 3-1 from last week’s 4-1, but he did not fare nearly as well as he did in the semi-finals, finishing in last place after stumbling in the early part of the race.
The rest of the field saw long odds indeed. The longest odds in the race went to Butterbridge Jen, who was a 50-1 longshot. She finished in fifth place, disappointing punters looking for a big pay out.
In second place, 6¼ lengths behind Giovanni, was Little Urge at 8-1. Another 1¼ lengths behind in third place was Final Gold at 10-1.
Daughter Of Peg finished in fourth place with 9-1 odds.
Giovanni will see his second birthday this month, and will start racing against hounds of all ages. His puppy career was excellent, and he will be expected to continue his winning ways against a more veteran
field.
One thing he does have going for him is Seamus Cahill, his trainer. Cahill is leading the way in the Trainers Championship by a large margin over Charlie Lister, last year’s winner. Winning the Puppy Cup
will extend Cahill’s lead, but it is highly unlikely he’ll lose out to Lister no matter what happens from here to the end of the season anyway.
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