Stan James Laurels recap: part two
The Stan James Laurels semi-finals were set Thursday at Belle Vue with six first round heats. The first three heats saw some upsets, and a crash, whereas the next three saw the fastest times of the first
round of the Laurels.
Here we look at the latter three heats.
Stan James Laurels Heat 4
The fourth heat saw a race favourite win as Ballymac Ace (11-10) took first place over Spinkys Nod by 1½ length. Ace’s time of 27.56 seconds was the second fastest time of the first round.
Qualifying for the second round after Nod was Little Gaffer, who finished 1¾ lengths behind Nod and ½ a length in front of Droopys Ruso.
As expected, Gaytime Mal and Baliff Sparky finished in the last two spots with Sparky in last by 2 lengths.
Stan James Laurels Heat 5
Bucks Yahoo, the Laurels favourite, drew the fifth heat, and came into the race as the 5-4 favourite, but it was Jolly Poacher who got off to the best start of the group, and won the race by five lengths
over Sunoak Crystal with the fastest time of the first round, a mark of 27.51.
As punters had seen in previous heats, the hounds were making contact on the bends, and a slight collision on the third bend put Bucks well back of Poacher. He wound up in third place, and will have another
chance in next week’s semi-final. Yahoo finished 9¼ lengths behind Poacher, and only a ½ length ahead of fourth place finisher, Was Not Me.
Little Sensation was replace in this heat by Trivial Pursuit, but the move made little difference as Pursuit finished in fifth, and did not advance to the semi-finals. He did stay ahead of Bowtime Lefty
by a ½ length to avoid last place.
Stan James Laurels Heat 6
Elwick Chris, the 11-10 race favourite, won the last of the heats by 3¼ lengths over Reluctant. Right behind Reluctant was Cape Time in third, and narrowly missing the cut-off was Craighall Horse in fourth.
Loughbeg Rooopy was ahead early and led for most of the race, but he faded heading into the final quarter of the track. He ended up in fifth place and in last was Mercurial Star.
Here are the draws for the semi-finals.
Semi-final one: 1 Cape Time, 2 Magna Buddy, 3 Jordan Light, 4 Ping The Lids, 5 November Weather, 6 Sunoak Crystal.
Semi-final two: 1 Bucks Yahoo, 2 Little Gaffer, 3 Judicial Pause, 4 Ballymac Ace, 5 Reluctant, 6 Yahoo Jamie
Semi-final three: 1 Spinkys Nod, 2 Jolly Poacher, 3 Hello Dino, 4 Elwick Chris, 5 Fatboyz Romeo, 6 Target Brett
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