Poppy pops out to break Towcester sprint clock

SLINGSHOT POPPY underlined her sprinting prowess with a stunning track record run over Towcester’s 270m course on Sunday as she set the standard in the heats of the Time Nutrition Sprint Trophy.

The run came after the Scottish raider had endured a troubled journey down to the Northamptonshire circuit, with her path to victory proving far more straightforward as she blasted out and made all in 15.16sec (going normal for all).

Trainer Brian Fairbairn said: “The lads set off early but had a lot of traffic and diversions and were delayed getting to the track. Fortunately the bitch is a great traveller.

“She has real speed and likes those type of traps, the up and over ones don’t seem to suit her as well. She’s only had two sprints for us and won them both. She also went inside the Newcastle 290m clock in a trial last year, clocking 16.46sec.

“We will think about how we campaign her, but races like the Angel of the North at Newcastle and East Anglian Derby at Yarmouth are possible four-bend targets.

“Travelling is something you have to accept if you want to keep and race these type of dogs. The van got back at 1am this morning from Towcester, but Poppy is fresh as a daisy.

“We’ve got the Glengar Vegas dog, and also a new one just come in from Pat Buckley called Glengar Yeats – he’ll go for Sunderland’s puppy race.

“I’m also giving Clona Ice a trial this back week. If you have a team you can put together to go racing with, it makes it better in that sense.”

The big guns fared well in other heats of Sunday’s competition, with wins for Richard Rees’s Sprinter of the Year Shadow Storm (15.60sec), Kevin Boon’s Scurry finalist Bockos Buster (15.45sec) and Paul Young’s in-form Lesleys Buddy (15.76sec).

An excellent card also included heats of the 712m GreatBet Challenge Trophy, with Sean Parker’s Droopys Flare setting the speed with a 42.58sec success.

Mark Wallis’s Vhagar (42.66sec) also justified odds-on favouritism to win unchallenged, with other qualifiers going to Kevin Hutton’s Tooreen Rose (42.71sec) and Seamus Cahill’s Unthinkable (43.35sec).

Fabulous Aria (28.72sec) was fastest of the four BGBF TruFrame Champion Stakes heat winners as Patrick Janssens’ Oaks finalist made all in 28.72sec. Other heat winners were Hutton’s Venetian Will (29.26sec) and Jazzy Design (29.18sec) and Kelly Hodson’s Romeo Force (28.94sec).

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