The Greyhound Derby Final

bennythedip2 · #1 May 27th, 2014, 22:59

Net Derby favourite

The final of the William Hill Greyhound Derby takes place on Saturday and from a massive 222 entries, just six sit on the cusp of collecting the £200 000-to-the-winner first prize.

It will take just under 29 seconds to separate sporting immortality from heroic failure, and it’s no exaggeration to suggest that every conceivable emotion has been played out at Plough Lane over five octane rounds.

Mind The Net may have had to sit and suffer in the early stages of his semi-final, but he demonstrated his trademark middle pace when it mattered most, and Pat Buckley’s charge is forecast to be around even money when the traps open on Saturday night.

“Unpredictable” is the word that comes to mind when describing some of the results but what is certain is that we will see a new name on the Trophy and it certainly hasn’t been an easy Derby for the punters.

Any of Saturday’s six finalists could have been supported at 80/1 at the beginning of the month, with Droopys Ward and Kincraig Rory both trading at 200/1 ahead of their first foray into the traps.

With the switch of the Derby timings due to the World Cup, the Irish dogs have added the “wow” factor to this year’s competition and following the exit of leading British hope, Aero Nemesis, they are now rated as low as 2/7 to win their first Derby since 2008.
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Ricky Holloway has proved the man to follow in the Champion Hurdle as he sent out Westmead Meteor (6/4f), Soviet Military (4/6f) and Castleyons Lofi (7/1) to pick up their respective heats of the competition.

The first of that trio registered the fasted time of the evening though it is Soviet Military that is the reigning champion and has a preferred draw of six in the Final.

Borneo may have seemed particularly laboured when exiting the Derby just over a week ago, though he showed no signs of any fatigue when dotting up in his heat of the Derby Plate.

Trainer, Peter Cronin will also be represented by All About Ya in the £1500-to-the-winner Final, and both he and Paul Young (Jaytee Seville) have the chance of notching up a Derby and Plate double on the night.

The main event is due off at 2108 BST and will be shown live on Sky Sports 1 (and SIS in the betting offices).

Trap draws for Saturday:

Derby Final: 1 Crokers Champ, 2. Salad Dodger, 3. Droopys Ward, 4. Mind The Net, 5. Kincraig Rory, 6. Farloe Trent

Champion Hurdle: 1. Blonde Becker, 2. Alittlessslip, 3. Castlelyons Cofi, 4. Cornamaddy Jumbo, 5. Westmead Meteor, 6. Soviet Military

Derby Plate: 1. Droopys Norris, 2. Jaytee Seville, 3. All About Ya, 4. Benkaat Nero, 5. Brosna King, 6. Borneo

bennythedip2 · #2 May 30th, 2014, 15:35

Blown away by all sorts of Derby investment

AS THIS is the first blog that I'm writing for the Racing Post, I should probably introduce myself. I'm Jon Ivan-Duke and I work for the Greyhound Derby sponsors, William Hill.

I've been given many titles, some of them aren't appropriate for polite company, but you can think of me as 'that William Hill PR bloke who occasionally pops up on RPGTV and struggles to pick a winner'.

This is the first William Hill Greyhound Derby that I have worked at and what has blown me away has been how much everybody invests in the competition.

I'm not talking about money necessarily, although William Hill have invested £200,000 and plenty of punters have dipped in to their hard-earned in the betting markets (well done if you still hold an ante-post slip for the Final - more on that shortly).

Leaving the cash to one side, it's about passion, determination and energy. This is the one competition that everyone in the greyhound racing fraternity dreams of winning and the overwhelming support it receives from trainers, owners, media, race-goers and punters is incomparable.

On Saturday night, before the Derby semi-finals got underway, Borneo was arguably the best performer in the heats for the Derby Plate, while Ricky Holloway proved he was the undoubted king of the William Hill Champion Hurdle with all THREE winners in qualifying.

I was on the track ahead of the first Derby semi-final and Alan Heard, part-owner of Droopys Ward, was a bundle of nerves. He didn't need to be, as Droopys Ward (or Socks as he's known at home) shocked odds-on favourite Crokers Champ by just edging him out with Salad Dodger also making it through to the Grand Final in third.

And in what seemed a blink of an eye, the second semi was underway and WHAT a performance from Mind The Net to earn his Golden Ticket to the Final.

I have to admit I was worried before the race about his chances of making it through and after the jostling round the first bend, I thought it was curtains, but he came right round the outside to get up. It's convinced me he has the profile of a Derby winner and he's the favourite for the Final, but anything can happen.

I'm excited ahead of the Final and I can only imagine how the trainers and owners feel.

I doubt there will be many hours sleep for any of the connections in the build-up and we now count down the hours in anticipation for the greatest race in the world.

bennythedip2 · #3 May 30th, 2014, 22:16

Well it's nearly D-Day for the Derby, and I'm sticking with the Dodger ..

C'mon >>>

Salad Dodger

bennythedip2 · #4 May 31st, 2014, 20:14

SALAD DODGER ..wins the Derby

We told ya Again

taylormade · #5 May 31st, 2014, 20:17

bennys the dog man

Tony2005 · #6 May 31st, 2014, 20:18

And it won an A5 at Romford in February....

Owned by the vet for Mark Wallis......

And lives in Newmarket......

Tony2005 · #7 May 31st, 2014, 20:26

The trainer only has FOUR DOGS...........

I cant wait for the film ......

The best Derby story ever.......

TheCaptain · #8 May 31st, 2014, 20:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by taylormade

bennys the dog man

He is that... Well done Benny.... Great result.

Tony2005 · #9 May 31st, 2014, 20:28

I didnt back it but.....

I did do a £1 como tri 1 x 2 x 3........paid £311.00.......

bennythedip2 · #10 June 3rd, 2014, 17:22

Mark ..
What a weekend we have just had with some tremendous action on the Derby Final night at Wimbledon.

Firstly a massive congratulations to Bruno Berwick and owner Ron Mills on the performance of their Salad Dodger who landed the sport's greatest prize the William Hill Derby Final to scoop a whopping £200,000.

Of course winning the Derby isn't just about the money it's something a trainer/owner can be proud of for the rest of their lives and as many people know Ron Mills is a great friend of our kennel and is without question the best Physio in the sport and has been a major part of our successful team for nearly 20 years, we have got to know Bruno over the last few months and we all at Imperial Kennels are proud of what they both have achieved.

I can't believe the Derby winner was laying on our kitchen table a week before the Derby started when Ron asked Linda to have a look at him because he was having severe waterwork problems.
Linda kindly catheterised the beautiful natured greyhound, a delicate situation that Linda is an expert in. Mine and Linda's advice on what to do afterwards to prevent a similar occurrence was fully listened to by Bruno and the rest is history, and what a training performance Bruno has done on Salad Dodger, he easily qualified from every round and saved his first win in the competition for the final! Wow!

These are the stories that make our sport so great and Salad Dodger, a £2,000 purchase three months ago, has given hope to every single owner and trainer in the sport who buys a greyhound that dreams do come true! Brilliant!

Well said Mark and we at 'talksportforums' couldn't agree more .