Nottingham National Sprint: Doubts remain over Boherbradda

Events / Darrell Williams / 08 December 2008 / Leave a Comment

Darrell Williams runs through the early odds as the National Sprint contenders prepare for the heats.

Nottingham's National Sprint kicks off with four first round heats tonight - all live on SIS - with three greyhounds dominating the outright market.

Boherbradda Mac with 20 Open race wins this year is understandably favourite and until a few weeks ago looked a shoo in for the Sprinter of the Year award. Winner of the Scurry Gold Cup, the other major sprint prize, back in the summer, his last two runs however have been some way below his high standard.

Admittedly, there were excuses over this 305m trip when stumbling, but a disappointing run at Newcastle is harder to explain. The difficulty in trying to overlook his claims is that before that he had run up a sequence of six wins, including a rapid 17.64 over the course and distance. However, interesting dark runner Markeys Star, who gave him a race when beaten a neck at Newcastle last month, is drawn on his immediate inside and perhaps worth a bet tonight (9.22), I'd be reluctant to back Harry Williams' dog outright for the competition, at least at this stage.

Of the big players, I prefer Horseshoe Ping, whose fastest time of the year (17.53) over the trip a fortnight ago confirms he is in top shape at the right time. Jim Reynolds' dog seems to have been around for ever, and is not known purely as a sprinter, with his record this year also including runners-up spots in both the Golden Sprint (400m) and the Guys'n'Dolls at Crayford (380m). Beaten only 1½ lengths by Boherbradda Mac in the Scurry final, he has won three from four (all over the CD) since dropping back to pure sprints and rates my idea of the competition's outright winner.

The other market leader Boherduff Monti is difficult to weigh up. Winner of eight of his last 12 outings, including an impressive track record winning performance in front of Sky cameras at Yarmouth in September, he has just struggled a little in his last three races at Nottingham, and while a brace of wins at Sheffield since reads well, I remain unconvinced.

For those searching further down the list most of the next batch of runners are closely matched, with Emmas Prince and Miss Lee, for example, both capable of beating each other. My problem with the pair of them is that while their form is solid - Emmas Prince, for example, ran an excellent race against Frosty Lee (sadly missing from the event) in a key form line - they don't appear to win enough races.

However, I'm hopeful I might have found one at a bigger price in Bayside Bear, who beat Emmas Prince over the trip three weeks ago, and has now won three of his four races, including one at Perry Barr, since returning from a four month layoff. I'd suggest a little on him ante-post, with a view to trading out perhaps later and also playing him tonight (9.07) in the first round.