Major competitions won't let up at Monmore

The Ladbrokes Winter Derby culminated in superb style last weekend as Proper Heiress ran the second-fastest 480m time ever seen at the Wolverhampton circuit (27.59secs), clinching the £10,000 prize for trainer Mark Wallis and owners MWD Partnership.

Now, it is the turn of the pups, with 36 born in April 2023 onwards going for a cool £20,000 including an interesting entry from over the Irish sea.

Six heats take place this evening and three will qualify from each for next week’s semi-finals.

The first heat takes place at 6.31pm and sees the well-fancied Droopys Aladdin, trained by former England rugby star Mike Burton, run from trap one.

Trap two, Ballymac Kobe (Maxine Locke, Romford) was the runner-up in the English Puppy Derby final at Towcester at the back end of last year while trap five, Signet Morgan (Kevin Hutton, Oxford) is one of two British-bred greyhounds involved.

Just two Monmore trainers are in the competition with Richie Taberner and Nathan Hunt having Newinn Deputy and Carmac Pete respectively running tonight.

Newinn Deputy goes out in the second heat aiming to build on his three Open race victories to date, and Wombourne-based handler Taberner is excited to see how he goes.

“Deputy’s one of several Droopys Sydney pups involved in the Puppy Derby and he’s certainly got ability,” said Taberner. “We’re thinking the Puppy Derby may have come around a couple of months too soon, but you never know, and he’s got a perfect draw having trap five.

“The realistic aim for us is to try to get through to the semi-finals, so if we can do that we’d be over the moon. Fingers crossed we can get through to next week.”

Heat three has two greyhounds who made the recent Northern Puppy Derby final at Newcastle in Yahoo Maizy (Locke) and Swift Bullseye (Raymond Hale, Newcastle), while heat four looks to have the most quality on show.

Both the bookmakers’ competition favourite Romeo Tomcat (Patrick Janssens, Towcester) and second-favourite Droopys Berries (Kevin Hutton, Oxford) are involved, along with Santas Amigo (David Mullins, Romford) who has two wins from two starts at Monmore. Hunt’s Carmac Pete appears to have his work cut out.

In heat five is Jacktavern Chief of Irish trainer David Byrne, making his British bow having last run competitively at Dublin’s Shelbourne Park last month.

Heat six contains the most experienced dog in the competition, Easy Maximus (Gwyneth Rees, Sheffield) who has 21 runs and three victories to his name.