Rover looks good with red in Queen Mum final
CROWN ROVER impressed with a terrific front-running performance to win a hot heat three in the Queen Mother Memorial Cup over660m at Sheffield on Tuesday.
Jimmy Wright’s charge was the one punters latched on to, being backed into 7-4 favouritism from 9-4, and those whohad supported him always looked likely to collect after he pinged out of trap three.
Never threatened, he went on to score by over four lengths from Romeo Maldini in 39.92sec, comfortably quicker than other heat winners Lissakyle Robin (40.96sec) and Droopys Arshavin (40.35sec).
That said, credit the Stuart Mason-trained Droopys Arshavin with a fine performance in heat two as he maintained his unbeaten record in 2010, riding a bump to lead at the third bend and drawing away to beat Hill Tipoki by five lengths.
That completed a double for Mason, whose Yorkshire Star had earlier made it three wins from three British starts when holding a rallying Droopys Flo by a length in a 500m open.
*Draw for Sunday’s £2,500 Queen Mother Memorial Cup final: 1 Crown Rover, 2 Patterdale Raffa, 3 Lissakyle Robin, 4 Droopys Arshavin (m), 5 Hill Tipoki (w), 6 Romeo Maldini (w).
At Doncaster, much of the interest was pre-meeting as the stars rolled into town for pre-Betfair Trainers’ Championship trials at the south Yorkshire track Tuesday night, two weeks prior to the event proper.
Mark Wallis’s Eye Onthe Storm set the standard as hemoved well in clocking 29.82sec for the 483m on a track running on the slow side, possibly around -20, which was 10 spots quicker than the next best time clocked by his Derby champion kennelmate Kinda Ready.
Two other greyhounds broke 30sec in the shape of Wallis’s Dalcash Scolari and Charlie Lister’s Farloe Lee (both 29.96sec), while Lister’s Calzaghe Bolt and Seamus Cahill’s Raving Black only just missed out on doing so as they stopped the clock in 30.00sec and 30.01sec respectively.
Other workouts of note came from Chris Allsopp’s Rackethall Hero (30.05sec), Wallis’s Eye Eye Pickle (30.06sec) and Cahill’s Challengingtimes (30.08sec), while Lister’s Australian import Jean Jeannie clocked a creditable 30.31sec.
There was a terrific sprint trial over 275m from Wallis’s Directors Wit, who posted 16.84sec as he beat St Leger winner Kinda Easy by fourand a half lengths.
In three opens on the card, there were victories for Cahill’s Jimmy Lollie (17.02sec) in a sprint, plus Dean Childs’s Karma Obama (29.82sec) and Lister’s Tyrur Speedy (29.72sec) over 483m.
