EMILY WALLIS: Greyhound Derby Blog #2 – “Could provide some final Derby clues…”

Welcome back to my second blog for the 2026 Greyhound Derby and we are now just over a week away from the first round getting underway! writes EMILY WALLIS.

⭐ STARSPORTS.BET GREYHOUND BETTING ⭐

⭐ STAR SPORTS GREYHOUND DERBY 2026 CONTENT ⭐

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⭐ Since last week, we have now had all of the entries confirmed and there are 166 in total that’ll be going into the drum for the draw on Friday!

GREYHOUND DERBY 2026 – The Entries Are In!

⭐ Star Sports were first up with the outright market and there has been a few slight changes at the top of the market since my last blog taking into consideration the entries and the racing over the weekend.

⭐ The major final of last weekend was the Con and Annie Kirby Memorial at Limerick and it was Bouncing Monarch who absolutely smashed out of the traps and made all in brilliant style, we can somewhat claim it as an English victory with the dog being owned by David Fradgley who also trained him before the competition where he made the Winter Derby Final at Monmore. Michael O’Donovan trained him for his time in Ireland and he perhaps went under the radar slightly but confirmed all the promise he’d shown in his English races and more on Saturday night. Now back with his original trainer and owner, he’s an interesting entry into the Derby and is joint second in the market at 16/1.

⭐ I think the other dog of note across the weekend was Lennies Eddie, he looks like he has taken to Towcester brilliantly winning both of his trial stakes so far! He is currently 22/1 in outright market. I visited Paul Hennessey’s kennels for one of my Kennel Visits and Lennies Eddie was certainly one he was sweet on. I think he should have loads of improvement yet he’s already clocking very fast times around the track, he could go a long way!

⭐ The trial stake he won on Sunday was a red hot one but unfortunately it was marred by trouble, Faypoint Harvey took a tumble for Graham Holland and Santas Amigo went wrong at the second bend. Thankfully, Faypoint Harvey completed the course and will still be taking part in his third English Derby but Santas Amigo did unfortunately pick up an injury and is now retired. This is a huge shame for Dave Mullins’ team as he had been flying around the track in trials and was a gallant second in the Juvenile but the main thing is he will make a full recovery and have a happy retirement!

⭐ Looking at the 166 confirmed entries, we have 108 railers, 31 middle seeds and 27 wides so, certainly in the first round, the wide seeds are guaranteed their preferred draw. As is normally the case nowadays, the rails seeds will have to be able to deal with being drawn slightly wider than ideal in a lot of cases and could be something to factor in when making selections.

⭐ We also have a total of 40 entries from the Irish based trainers and, as I’ve found out from my kennel visits and the trial stakes at the tracks the last few weeks, the Irish challenge looks as strong as ever! At the very top of the market there’s a mix of Irish and English trained dogs but if you look slightly further down there’s plenty of talented Irish dogs that will be taking their chance.

⭐ As there are 166 entries, instead of the advertised 32 heats this is being reduced to 28 so there are as many six dog races as possible. This also means that a certain number of heats will have the first four dogs qualify instead of three to make sure there are the correct number of dogs progressing to the second round. After the main draw on Friday, there will be another draw to determine which 12 heats will have four qualify, there will already be two five dog heats that will not be included in the draw.

⭐ This may sound confusing but it seems a fair way of doing it and all will become clear when watching the draw on Friday. You will be able to watch the draw exclusively on the Star Sports website so make sure to tune in from 12.30pm to see how the heats will shape up next week!

⭐ As well as the first-round draw on Friday, we also have the Star Sports Preview Night at Mayfair next Tuesday to look forward to! Just a couple of days before the first round gets underway, this always builds the excitement even further! This is going to be hosted by our own Kaan Hughes with the panel including Ian Fortune, Mark Wallis and Martin Chapman. I am going to be there capturing the chat with the panellists and plenty of interviews from those in attendance which you can view on our live blog on Tuesday night!

⭐ There’s still plenty of great racing across this weekend that could provide some final Derby clues. We have the Brighton Belle final down at Hove on Saturday night which looks a really classy final and three of the runners in there will be taking their place in the Derby. These include, the favourite, Strike It Skye who’s 25/1 in the Derby market, Teddie who’ll be second favourite on Saturday and looks to have come into form at just the right time as well as Alright Twinkle.

⭐ There are still a few trial sessions to go too including on Thursday where we’ll get to see one of the favourites, Underground Gold, get his final preparation as well as the rest of Paul Young’s talented team.

⭐ Make sure you tune into the draw on Friday and all the content from our Preview Night next Tuesday and I’ll be back next week ahead of the first round where we will know how all the heats shape up!

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