Greyhound racing: Lyreen Mover favourite to bag Classic
English Derby runner-up Lyreen Mover remains favourite in tonight’s £25,000 williamhill.com Classic, despite suffering a six-and-a-half-length defeat to Target Classic in last week’s semis.
The Hungarian-trained charge clocked a smashing time of 26.83secs over the 450m in the opening heats and was a little unlucky on his last occasion to lose his footing, which led Classic to cruise to glory in 26.85sec.
I’m not quite convinced that Craig Dawson’s Classic will be able to replicate the same performance tonight without some form of luck. The seeded mid-runner seems to let big-race nerves affect him when it counts and has been drawn with trap five.
Trap five will put him beside the exceptionally fast Ballymac Ace, who has only lost one in his last eight.
Charlie Lister’s Fear Zafonic is another big-race runner, whose English Derby campaign finished pretty much the same as Mover in 2009. Zafonic was awarded greyhound of the year in the annual GBGB awards but has failed to bring any trophies to his kennel since - could the Classic change that?
It really is a tough one.
The main event is scheduled to start at 9.45pm and will be televised live on Sky Sports, organisers are hoping for a record-breaking night.
William Hill's Simon Fozzard said: "The wet weather we've had will dampen down the track and could lead to some very fast times. There has been some good crowds and exciting racing at this year's UK Festival and we expect the finale to be just as good.”
In the supporting William Hill Grand Prix (£15,000 winner’s prize) trainer Mark Wallis hopes Kinda Easy can go the distance.
Thursday Classic final draw (live on Sky Sports):
T1. Lyreen Mover (3), T2. Romeo Reason (11.5), T3. Fear Zafonic (4.8), T4. Ballymac Ace (5), T5. Target Classic (5.6), T6. Mario Gomez (13)
Bettor.com prediction: T1 - Lyreen Mover
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