Rayvin Giovanni looks for revenge against Bright Redcliff in Romford Puppy Cup Final
Romford will host the £8000 Romford Puppy Cup Final on Friday. The six finalists had to survive the opening round of heats, and then finish in the top two of last week’s semi-finals to earn a spot in Friday’s race.
Favoured is Rayvin Giovanni, who will look to win the Puppy Cup and further solidify Seamus Cahill’s lead in the Trainers Championship. Cahill has a significant lead over last year’s winner, Charlie Lister.
Giovanni has looked extremely impressive in his young career, and many expect him to finish his puppy career with a dominating win in the Puppy Cup Final. In the first round of the Puppy Cup he beat Archers Eagle by a huge 13½ lengths. He has won nine of
his 12 career races to date, and took second in the three races he lost.
Even though one of those second place finishes came last week against Bright Redcliff in the semi-finals, most expect him to rebound and win the Puppy Cup final.
Leading the group that will attempt to knock off the heavily favoured Giovanni is Redcliff. Before beating Giovanni with a time of 23.79 last week, Redcliff had won four of his first six career races. On September 10 however, he finished in last place, 9½
lengths behind the winner.
Daughter Of Peg is another potential contender. She won her semi-final race by 3¾ lengths, with a time of 24.17, and has more experience than both Giovanni and Redcliff. She has won eight career races, but only thrice in her past seven attempts.
The other semi-final winner was Final Gold, who beat Little Urge by 1¼ lengths in their race with a time of 24.19. Gold had only won twice in six attempts before last week’s victory. She also have two second place finishes to her credit.
Little Urge couldn’t pull off the win last week, but she has an impressive record of her own. She has yet to finish below third in her 14 career races. She has finished in first eight times. One of her loses was to Giovanni in the opening round of the
Puppy Cup.
The final entrant in the final is Butterbridge Jen, who lost to Daughter Of Peg last week by 3¾ lengths. She has four career wins, and probably has a successful career ahead of her, but she is a likely candidate to finish in last in this race against a very
difficult field.
Giovanni was the second fastest hound of the semi-finals, clocking a time of 23.93. He and Redcliff were the only two hounds to finish in less than 24 seconds in the semis. The field is tough in this one, but Giovanni is looking to be one of the next all-time
great racers. If he again loses to Redcliff it may not be that people think less of Giovanni, but rather that they think more highly of Redcliff.
Here’s the draw for the final: 1 Daughter Of Peg, 2 Little Urge, 3 Bright Redcliff, 4 Final Gold, 5 Rayvin Giovanni (m), 6 Butterbridge Jen (m).
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