Southfield Poppy gave us a great start to the week as she completed a five-timer when leading all the way in her ladies open at Swindon on Tuesday evening. She’s been in fantastic form and is very much enjoying her racing at the moment. Union Piper got a little lost on her first visit to the track in the same race but will return for another go next week. Untold Ariary posted 15.74 in her sprint trial before racing and handled the track nicely. She’ll return again next week for another trial.

I had the long journey North to Sunderland on Wednesday as we looked to get a couple of dogs a look round before the upcoming puppy cup there.
Jacktavern Chief ran the track pretty well on his first look and clocked 27.67. There’s plenty more to come from him and he’ll certainly improve for the spin. The trial of Witton Thomas looked a bit strange and he only clocked 28.23 which would be miles behind what we expected. The hare did seem a long way past the boxes before they opened and he did check off the 2nd bend a little but he’s much better than that form suggests and he’ll be giving the competition a miss.

Donna had the early morning journey to Monmore on Friday to be ready for our 9am vets appointment. Sir Oreo had an operation to remove a troublesome old flexor tendon and they did a great job with him. He’ll only need 3 weeks off before he’s back in action but we look in a race against time to make the Pall Mall with him. The main thing is though that it does the job for him and we get to enjoy what is a very fast dog when at his best.

Unfortunately the trip to Central Park proved a wasted one on Saturday evening as the meeting was abandoned due to the awful weather conditions. The competition has been put back a week which is a bit of a concern for us as our dogs had already been freshened up with a 2 week break but they’ll be kept busy at home and hopefully we can qualify both next week.

Baran Tombstone continued his unbeaten start to his racing career for owner Stefan Baran when taking a 2 grade hike to A1 in his stride. He broke very well but has a really smart turn of foot to the corner and pulled a few lengths clear of his field. He’s the not the strongest coming home at the moment and held on by 1/2 a length in a personal best 27.00. He’s a very lightly done October pup and has plenty of filling out to do and he could turn into a nice Romford puppy cup dog.

Deelish Crofty has been in good form of late and he got a much deserved maiden open victory when overcoming a slow start to win in 26.88. He’s getting stronger all the time and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles the jump up in class that’s now coming. Witton Mac was given a very tough A1 in just the 3rd race of his life but he really pleased us when finishing 2nd. It was a race with plenty of early pace around him but he handled in great and while he never looked like winning he was beaten just a length and posted a personal best 26.93 which was nice step forward.

Jock had to wait until the lucky last at Towcester on Sunday afternoon but thankfully we managed to come away with a winner as Coppice Ella won her heat of the ladies competition when staying on strongly to win by 1 1/2 lengths in 29.12. We’ve a little bit to find on the clock in the final but this was only Ella’s 2nd race this year and she can easily take another step forward next week for owner Tony Brealey.

Kranky Drake was given his debut in the puppy competition and was very unlucky to be knocked out in 3rd place. He was badly crowded a couple of times on the opening bend but showed huge pace down the back straight to get himself back in the race but unfortunately the race was over by then. He’s a pup with a bright future and has the puppy comps at both Towcester and Nottingham on the agenda. Signet Nayla ran much better this week after her look round last time out but couldn’t quite get a clear run when she needed it and she was knocked out of the ladies comp in 4th place.