IT’S a huge week for the Derby – the English Greyhound Derby!
We are down to the last twelve in Towcester’s spectacular knockout competition, won by legends of the sport in Mick the Miller, Rapid Ranger and Westmead Hawk.
The latter will remain the most extraordinary greyhound I’m sure I will ever see. Intelligence of Einstein! He blew me away.
I’ve been lucky enough to present at many Greyhound Derbys in the old days of Sky Sports Greyhounds. Really miss that show produced by Lee Irvine and his team. It was always such fun.
Times move on, though, and the 2025 semi-finals take place this Saturday, with the final on June 14.
Towcester have done all they can to promote the Starsports-sponsored event, with discounted tickets, entertainment and competitions abounding from Round 1. You can always check out all the details and deals on greyhoundracinguk.com.
Actually, while I remember, if you go to tickets.greyhoundracinguk.com and use my code CHAPPERS20 you will get 20% off for the semis!
Quite simply it feels as though the buzz is back with the Greyhound Derby.
As with all knockout competitions, there have been upsets along the way.
That included in the quarter finals last Saturday.
Let’s have a quick look back at what happened over the weekend.
In the first Quarter Final Cheap Sandwiches, one of the big ante-post fancies, made all from Trap 5.
He rallied well in the home straight when slightly challenged by Droopys Bookem.
The latter had a solo round the first bend on the inside and had every chance.
To be fair, Cheap Sandwiches is more prawn and mayo than cheese and pickle.
The second Quarter Final went to defending champion De Lahdedah, who from Trap 3 got away in second behind the blistering early pace of Churchfield Syd and picked up the eventual runner up close home.
It was a determined effort but far from scintillating.
The time of that Quarter was 28.82s, compared to 28.67 from Cheap Sandwiches which backed up the view of the naked eye.
Dynamic Force was electric making all in the 3rd Quarter Final always proving to pacey for strong fancy Bombay Pat. The latter had no excuses and looked a bit tired to me. A time of 28.66s was excellent.
Then the big shock. Ante-post favourite Bockos Diamond missed the break before showing blinding pace to take it up down the back straight.
The effort was all too much. He got tired in the closing stages and was picked up by Slick Sentinel and Droopys Plunge.
Slick Sentinel did well, as he pinged, got headed and then rallied.
But the time was only average in 28.87 suggesting it was all a bit of a mess. Bockos Diamond, however, did survive!
For the semi-finals the draw is everything. My opinion is that Churchfield Syd is absolutely plotted up in Trap 6 for the first Semi-Final.
I can’t see how he doesn’t go clear and he was brilliant from the front in the second round.
De Lahdedah (Trap 2) will pick him up if getting clear of Sole Mio and and Droopys Bookem but that is a big if when you consider his worst start in the competition so far has been from the Blue box.
The second Semi-Final looks much more complicated to me.
But Cheap Sandwiches could easily make all from Trap 5. The lead is up for grabs here unless, of course, Dynamic Force gets out like he did in the quarters.
It’s hard to know how he will react to Trap 4.
The issue is also trying to guess how Bockos Diamond goes from Trap 6. A fast start makes him dangerous. Very dangerous. But he’s not always electric from the boxes.
All in all, for me Churchfield Syd and De Lahdedah are the best positioned greyhounds to get to the final.
But they come from a slow quarter-final. It’s such a great conundrum to get to grips with and tackle.
But that’s the beauty of the Greyhound Derby. And it’s perfectly positioned with 6 UK based greyhounds and 6 Irish greyhounds in the mix.
Now, hopefully, you will understand that the 2025 Greyhound Derby promises much.
