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Barnfield and Ballymac defeats leave questions to be answered

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Jonathan Hobbs picks over the bones of last week's racing at Monmore and Hove

Barnifeld On Air and Ballymac Under forced a shake-up in the Derby betting when beaten at Hove and Monmore respectively on Thursday. But I would give them both the benefit of the doubt.

In Ballymac Under's case, he missed the kick and Monmore, while the fastest track in the country, can be an unforgiving place and a two-length deficit at one track becomes a four-length one at the Wolverhampton venue. He also found plenty of trouble.

Barnfield On Air's situation is more complex I believe. He can, at first glance, be forgiven for finishing fourth (not by those who backed him at around 1-3 mind!) in what was only his second run following winter rest.

But for me it was like watching the Barnfield Of Air of this time last year. Brilliant one minute, as he most certainly was in a track-record shaking trial pre-Hove, but arguably not so when giving chase as he had to on Thursday behind Spears Tarquynn.

There were one or two instances in his early races at Coventry when this came to the fore, and then in true Barnfield On Air form he would run them ragged, clock a scorching time and was soon cultivating this 'wonder dog' status. Hove, Belle Vue and Coventry proved he was.
But this was all assisted by a quite wonderful piece of training by Darran Keefe, in particular, Sam Poots' assistant.

Keefe got the dog to run consistently fast and brilliant. It took time, but it came to the fore post-Wimbledon and by the time he tried to back-run his Laurels opponents at Belle Vue after missing the break, he was on fire, and unlucky in that race.

So Keefe and Poots now have their work cut out, but it will happen. As the Irish handler has said, Barnfield On Air is being trained for the three Derbys, beginning with Shawfield. And while out in front he is unstoppable, he showed enough to me on Thursday that, over 480m of the Classic trips (Shawfield, then Wimbledon. Shelbourne is 503m) he will qualify if he ever founds himself in behind. And that might be crucial if this 'impossible' dream is realised.

* * *

Great racing at Monmore last week for the four finals concluding the Spring Festival, and Holyromanemperor is the dog to take from them.

He was fantastic in winning the 480m final and completed an unbeaten run through the competition, his first races in Britain since moving from Ireland to David Pruhs's kennel. His back-straight pace was awesome and he was impressive in pulling right away from Rev Counter.
The latter is trained by Chris Allsopp, who really is having a good time of late. And his Burnpark Champ looks the real deal in setting the standard in the Midland Puppy Derby heats.

Now, Monmore, as touched upon above, can be a touch misleading. Very fast times can be clocked by greyhounds who would not normally expect, but Burnpark Champ really was so far and away quicker than anything else (28.09) that he must be useful and above-average.

I still believe Ardmayle Champ will go close. He came into the Monmore race as 'second string' behind Ballymac Under in Matt and Terry Dartnall's kennel, but showed enough early speed at Wimbledon behind Ninja Jamie to suggest that here also was a tool.