The Coral Greyhound Olympic opening heats
The racecard at Hove last night provided locals with a treat as 36 hopefuls trained by some of the top handlers in the business battled out in the opening heats of the Coral Greyhound Olympic over 515m.
Richard Yeates was the first trainer to land success in the opening heat after Freedom Emma (4-5 favourite) made best use of trap four to produce the best break (4.15sec sectional) which led her to cross the mark short of any threat in a time of 29.57sec.
Ballymac William (4-5 favourite) who began as joint ante-post market favourite was another greyhound to burst out of the lids (4.11 sectional) with great early pace to give the winning trainer of the Bettor.com Scottish Derby Carly Philpott a comfortable victory.
Barrie Draper completed a double on the night, the first win coming from Farloe Rocket (3-1) who clocked 29.27sec in the third heat, and shortly after from Farley Blitz (4-5 favourite) who demolished the competition in heat four.
Blitz, who was earlier the joint-favourite with William in the ante-post markets should now be a clear favourite after his performance. He produced an excellent early break just like the majority of winners on the night, but showed great use of pace across the 515m to win by almost eight lengths in 29.47sec.
Four time-English Derby winning trainer Nick Savva was also at Hove last night and represented by Westmead Grant (7-4 favourite) who is naturally a suited wide trap runner. Grant pretty much took care of business from trap six last to finish first in 29.82sec.
Grant has been gifted with trap six once again in next Thursday’s semi-finals and may be a good early selection if you’re looking for some value betting.
Droopys Flo (5-1) was the last greyhound to prevail in heat six - a heat which saw market favourite Magna Venturer (1-1 favourite) face early crowding and face a few bumps to miss out on qualification.
The draw for Thursday’s semi-finals is an interesting one and with only two qualifications spots up for grabs from each race, it should spice things up.
The final is scheduled to take place on June 17th and has a winner’s prize of £5,000 up for grabs - who will go the distance?
Draw for next Thursday’s semis:
First: 1 Boolavogue, 2 Ballymac Well, 3 Delwood Robbo, 4 Lethal Freds (m), 5 Hallucination (m), 6 Iconic Blue (w).
Second: 1 Ballymac William, 2 Raving Black, 3 Challengingtimes, 4 Farloe Rocket, 5 Droopys Kentucky (m), 6 Freedom Emma (m).
Third: 1 Farloe Titan, 2 Farley Blitz, 3 Remraf (m), 4 Sparklee Bernie (w), 5 Droopys Flo (w), 6 Westmead Grant (w).
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