STAR SPORTS WELSH DERBY

AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

EMILY WALLIS: Welsh Greyhound Derby Final

This Saturday we have the final of the Star Sports Welsh Derby at Valley, and it should be a brilliant night at the track showcasing our sport in the best possible way, writes EMILY WALLIS.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 STAR SPORTS WELSH GREYHOUND DERBY ANTE-POST 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

After a few surprises in the semi-finals, we have been left with a very competitive final where it looks very difficult to pick a winner.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Saturday night is going to be an important evening for greyhound racing in Britain, with it looking likely that greyhound racing will be banned in Wales after the bill was passed earlier this year. However, the industry is still fighting with a petition to overturn the ban recently receiving over 10,000 signatures. Members of the Senedd are also planning on attending on Saturday evening so it’s important to use the evening to reflect the Stronger Together message to try and get this ban overturned.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 If you could get to the track to show your support, it further supports this message. It’s sure to be a good night of racing with plenty of supporting opens planned, a supporting final and the final of the Welsh Derby itself, a race that dates back almost 100 years and has been won by many English Derby champions, including the legendary Mick The Miller and Patricias Hope.

There will also be fundraising for local rehoming centres, showing the importance of this to the track and industry.

I am really looking forward to being in attendance and getting plenty of interviews and social content, this will all be available on the Star Sports social media if you cannot attend the track yourself.

🐶 Looking back to the semi-finals, the most impressive has to be Face The Storm for trainer Mike Burton. He won his semi-final on Saturday in a brilliant time of 27.65, a new track record! He’s in such brilliant form recently now having won his last four races and, although he is known more for racing over six bends, he’s handled the step down in trip really well and blasted out of the traps on Saturday night to lead the whole way and once he got round the second bend in front, he was always going to be an easy winner.

He is the 11/10 favourite with starsports.bet for the final, understandably after such an impressive win in his semi-final. He won his first-round heat in completely different style coming from last to first so he can clearly do it both ways at Valley and if he gets a clear run on Saturday night, he’s going to be hard to stop.

🐶 Second behind Face The Storm on Saturday and also qualifying was Simpson Sniper for trainer Shaun Chappell, he also showed nice early pace and pulled away from the rest of the field, enough to comfortably hold off the strong finishing Ballymac Madgie. Although the Welsh Derby has been a step up in class for him, he had a solid run in the first round too coming second behind Clongeel Bono so he hasn’t done much wrong and certainly deserves his spot in the final.

🐶 The winner of the highly competitive first semi-final was another local greyhound, Sawpit Signature. The pace in this race was set by Gwyn Luka but he was always being hunted down by Sawpit Signature who struggled to find a way around him for a lot of the race but managed to do so on the home straight and pull away for the win.

He was originally second in the ante post market before the first round and is now second in the betting for the final, priced at 10/3 with starsports.bet. He’s the youngest of the finalists still being a puppy for another month and Saturday will be just his 12th career start so he’s also the most inexperienced of the field, but he possesses plenty of pace and is improving all the time so is a deserved second favourite.

🐶 Despite being picked up, Gwyn Luka did manage to hold on to that crucial qualifying place in second. Behind him in third was our original ante post favourite, Anglesey Milo, who once again struggled to get a run and unfortunately made an exit from the competition.

🐶 The third semi-final was won by Fastlane George for trainer Donna Davy. This was another competitive race with four of the first-round heat winners lining up here including Clongeel Bono who, after an impressive victory in that first round, was our outright favourite going into the semi-finals.

All greyhounds completed the race but unfortunately there was trouble around the first two bends which put Romeo Victor out of the race and massively hampered Clongeel Bono’s chances, he could only finish 5th.

Hoholetsgo managed to lead but was ultimately picked up by Fastlane George, he did just manage to hold on to second place though by just a short head from Magical Hawk.

🏆 It’s a great achievement for Donna Davy having originally only entered one greyhound into the competition and he is now unbeaten going into the final and is third favourite at 11/2 with starsports.bet.

Simpson Sniper is next in the betting at 7/1 followed by Hoholetsgo at 15/2 and Gwyn Luka at 8/1, so it’s very open between them all and there’s a good mix of early pace and staying power in the race.

The draw seems to have worked out well for all the greyhounds with a mix of seeds so hopefully it’s a clean run race and the best greyhound will win on the night.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The supporting final on the night is the Malcolm Tams memorial race which will be an emotional moment for his family and local trainers/racegoers to the Valley that knew him. Malcolm, who unfortunately passed away in December of last year aged 70, was the long-time promoter and general manager of Valley and truly loved the track and the sport.

It’s sure to be a great night of greyhound racing on Saturday with plenty of supporting opens leading up to the Welsh Derby Final, set to go off at 9.24pm. To all connections, the best of luck!

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