An early look at the 2009 Greyhound Derby

Derby Betting / Darrell Williams / 26 October 2008 / 3 Comments

Trying to predict the winner of the 2009 Greyhound Derby might seem a crazy idea at this stage but Darrell Williams highlighted this year's winner Loyal Honcho last Christmas, so it's surely worth a stab...

Where to start? Initially, by looking at the trainers with the best records in the race and then at those dogs who reached this year's renewal. Charlie Lister and Nick Savva have both won the race three times in the past ten years and can also claim four and three additional finalists respectively. Lister fielded Kryptonite in last May's final - he's now back with his Irish handler Ollie Bray - and as an Oct 2005 whelp he'll still be reasonably young enough next summer. Lightly raced, he reached the third round of the Irish Laurels recently, but I'm still not convinced. Naturally the Newark maestro has any number of fancies towards the top of the betting: Ninja Jamie, the Yarmouth Derby winner, has bundles of class, but was an early elimination last year.

Fear Zafonic is more interesting, has little mileage on the clock, although he's yet to try his luck at Wimbledon.

Savva's most obvious candidate at this stage is Westmead Osprey, but he's been off since finishing second in the Puppy Classic in August and has recently picked up another hock problem.

When Loyal Honcho won this year's final, it was no more than Seamus Graham deserved after four finalists in the previous four renewals, but the champ won't returning after being retired during the Irish Derby. Ireland also provided the runner-up courtesy of Tyrur Kieran, but sadly Paul Hennessey's runner has not raced since picking up an injury in the Classic way back in June. His other finalist, Tyrur Laurel, has retained his form with a close up third in the recent Irish Laurels final, but he'll be nearly four by the time of next year's Derby, and is therefore overlooked, as are fellow 2008 finalists Blonde Dino and Lenson Express for the same reason.

So with the obvious angles throwing up only limited possibilities, we need to dig a little deeper, and thankfully there are a handful of dogs that make plenty of appeal as possible winners over the winter.

The one I particularly like is Wise Thought, who still remains relatively un-hyped despite reaching the Irish Derby semi-finals. It was his run on Derby final night this year when accounting for a high class field in the Puppy race that initially drew me towards him, clocking a very decent 2749 in the process. The fact he is trained by relatively unknown Martin White has probably prevented his price from being trimmed too much, although a very fast run at Nottingham the other day would have done plenty to rejuvenate interest in the June 2006 whelp and in the shorter term he looks an obvious candidate for next month's Eclipse at the same track.

I'm also putting up Boherna Best, who did this column a massive favour when winning the Laurels last month. Although unraced at Wimbledon he has been campaigned entirely in competitions, also claiming the Monmore Gold Cup as well as a Puppy event at Hove and remains one to follow.

Comments (3)

1. johnstreeton | 29 December 2008

   please can you tell me name of breeder for loyal honcho and his adreess thanks js

2. David Connell | 22 January 2009

   New to all this ante post betting, would like to know dates heats start and date of semis and final please. any help much appreciated.

   Dave

3. declan | 26 January 2009

   DARK DOG FOR THIS YEARS DERBY???????
   VICTORY MILE................
   FASTEST DOG I'VE SEEN TO A BEND AND STAYS