Westmead will look to Bolt for a victory in the Greyhound Derby Plate Final
After the Irish Greyhound Derby Final, and the Derby’s Consolation Final, there will still be the €4000 Greyhound Derby Plate Final, at Shelbourne Park on Saturday night.
The Derby Plate’s first round of heats start the week after the Derby begins. Contestants consist of greyhounds that failed to qualify for the Derby’s second round. The result is a mix of longshots, hounds that ended up with difficult first round draws, and the occasional favourite that either fell or stumbled out of the gates in the Derby’s opening round.
Westmead Bolt fell in the first round of the Derby, becoming the first of a long list of strong racers to be eliminated from the Derby. Since then, he has won two of three races (he would have won the third if the track had been just a little longer).
Bolt’s biggest threat will come from another strong racer, St Louis Spirit, who stumbled out of the traps in the first round of the Derby and finished last in his heat. Since then, he has won two of his three races. In the semi-finals last week, a slow start put Spirit at the back of the pack, but a strong recovery allowed him to move from sixth to third, earning him a spot in the final.
Slippery Dave lost to Spirit in the first two rounds of the Derby Plate, but took advantage of Spirit’s slow start last week to win the semi-final race. Three One Three has also looked good, taking second in the first round, and first in the second round before losing to Dave last week.
The only racer to beat Bolt so far in the Derby Plate has been Ballyfeard Brave, who got off to a great start and an early lead last week. With Bolt moving up from fourth to second behind him, Brave managed to stay in front, and win the race by 3 1/2 lengths. In Saturday’s final, Brave and Bolt will start from the first and second traps respectively, meaning the battle between them will be decided early.
The last Derby Plate finalist is Tyrur Lucky, who will battle St Louis Spirit from the outside trap. Spirit drew the sixth trap while Lucky got the fifth. Lucky hasn’t won a race in the Derby Plate so far, and lost by 2 lengths to Bolt in the second round, but he is the half brother of Tyrur Big Mike and Tyrur Mcguigan, both of whom are heavy favourites in the Derby Final.
Derby Plate Final draw:
1 Ballyfeard Brave
2 Westmead Bolt
3 Three One Three
4 Slippery Dave
5 Tyrur Lucky
6 St Louis Spirit
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