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Romford will be the talk of Perry Barr

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The Racing Post's Jonathan Hobbs looks ahead to the Sky-televised action this week...

It promises to be a great week, with plenty of action on and off the track, and enough talking points to keep us going.

On Tuesday, live greyhound racing returns to the screen with the final of the Betdirect Prestige at Hall Green but the situation around the disqualified Romford Car Two is sure to come up in conversation between myself and Gary Newbon during the night.

It's a shame we have ended up with another Sky five-dog final, but racing manager Rob Coulthard was 100 per cent right in handing out a second red card to John Mullins's popular stayer for fighting. The dog will now hope to continue his career after clearing trials in Ireland. And don't bet against him winning the Corn Cuchulainn over there!

Whenever Romford Car Two lined up in races over here, you always felt anything was possible. He had gears to burn but being a touch wayward made it not just difficult when punting him, but the others in the race also. For me, that was part of the punting puzzle, but I can see the point of those who steered clear of any races he was in.
It's like my mate Meldrum and hurdlers!

But a five-dog decider notwithstanding, Hall Green have produced a good card. At this time of year, Open race programmes can be victim of some of the larger kennels taking time off for winter rest, especially for some of the top performers. Track conditions can vary and the 'stars' can be wrapped in cotton wool.

Of course, for most, any winter rest is shortened this year. The better dogs will, and are, appearing sooner because there's an earlier Derby this year to avoid a clash with the European Championships. The Derby will be run at Wimbledon throughout the month of May, effectively five weeks before its 2007 schedule.

We've had our own 'winter rest' on Sky, and look forward now to returning on Tuesday, but some of the leading four-bend performers have been preparing for, and racing, in the Birmingham Cup at Perry Barr and another talking point has been the young track sensation that is the Matt Dartnall-trained Ballymac Under.

His performance in winning his heat on Saturday night allayed fears that he lacked the necessary experience in all-aged contests to compete at the highest level.

A runaway win in a brilliantly fast time in the conditions have set things up nicely for Thursday's semi-finals, pending the draw at the NGRC offices on Monday.

A day later (Friday), Romford stages the final of the Coronation Cup and Genesis Dream has to be a lay! Now, that's not to crab the performances of Mark Wallis's bitch, it's just that not one single favourite in nine qualifiers - six heats and three semis - has landed the spoils.

As for another batch of dogs to follow, I've liked the performances of the following greyhounds: Luminous Mercury (Lister sprinter will win soon); King Leonidas (Romford grader flying through the levels); Ballymac Booster (pace on straights, needs to run bends more
smoothly) and Stride On Babe (best judged on Romford heat success).

And as for the Greyhound of the Year contest, well you will have to wait! Myself and Darrell will be hosting the BGRB Greyhound of the Year awards in London on Sunday and both of us have vowed not to know the outcome until the envelope is opened around 10pm on Sunday night. Barnfield On Air or Spiridon Louis? Who do you think?