JAYNE CLARKE

Weblog: A Bettor view of the world

Posh Pigs set to fly in our Sky Wednesday novelty

From the Bettor.com Scottish Derby Final on Friday 13th April to the first night of heats at our Peterborough Puppy Derby on Saturday 14th, the past month has certainly been a whirlwind.

Looking back at the Scottish Derby it really was a tremendous competition this year, with the final being one of the most competitive under our sponsorship, and it was such a privilege to witness Paul Hennessy winning this Classic for the third time. I congratulate all the winners and thank everyone who entered the competition. I also thank everyone for making this one a special and memorable fifth anniversary. It is always a pleasure to work with Shawfield, Sky, the Racing Post and the trainers who put their all into making this event a remarkable occasion. In fact it's always sad when these few weeks come to an end as it's such a thrilling ride . . . I just want to get back on and do it all over again!

Every year the Scottish Derby continues to capture worldwide attention, as emails fly into my inbox from as far as Australia and the US. This year we’ve seen more people than ever get involved and excited about it, which was possibly due to the coverage via live streaming, so we’ll certainly be continuing with that in the future. 

As one event comes to an end, however, we move onto our next, the Bettor.com Peterborough Puppy Derby, which has had quite a few highs and lows already throughout the past couple of weeks.

Lewis, our greyhound writer, and I went up last Friday for the semi-finals and it was great to see the crowds pour into the stadium. We got treated to a wonderful three-course meal -and I can highly recommend the caramel parfait - before I was summoned to carry out the draw. It seems like it went in everyone’s favour so we are in for another intriguing and exciting final.

Finally, every year at the Peterborough Puppy Derby (Wednesday) we try to do something different to raise money for the Retired Greyhound Trust (RGT) and last year I ran alongside Sky Sports’ Julie Collier in a human-hound race.

So this year, after witnessing pig racing during my trip to Dallas last October, we decided to find some pigs and hold a special Charity ‘Trotters Trophy’. As I write this I see on our website, www.bettorpigrace.com that Swine-mon Cowell is the current favourite and Lester Piggott is very much the outsider at a juicy 9.2 . . .

Follow me @Bettor_jayne