Betfair Official Blog

Fantastic strength in depth on display at Coventry

Jonathan Hobbs marks your card on the ones to watch after another great night of racing...

THE arguments raged long into the night at Coventry - and started again on the greyhound desk of the Racing Post the morning after!

Barnfield On Air or Spiridon Louis for Greyhound of the Year? Do you favour the brute speed of the fastest thing on four legs and all those track records, or the brilliant stayer with the incredible will-to-win and unparalleled competition record in 2007? Tough one, or not? For some it is, others not. But on the terraces in the bars on Thursday at Coventry, it seems to be an issue that has polarised opinion and is not as clear-cut as appeared likely.

So what more can be said about Barnfield On Air?
It was an performance of speed and power and, on a track running slow, the 29.08sec time was quite amazing, although perhaps not so given what we have come to expect from Sam Poots's dog! But it should be noted that FEAR HARIBO and TOOSEY BLUE ran terrific races in defeat and the way they pulled clear of the remaining trio was impressive so both should be backed to keep on winning races in 2007.

On what was generally a good night for punters, one or two dogs caught the eye, not least POOL ROOM JACK in the maiden final. He came through to win well and is handed by a man, Derek Law, who has huge experience in the game and proved again how great he is at placing and preparing dogs.

Slightly obvious, but the greyhound to take out of the sprint was LEMONFIELD DAISY. She has pace to burn and, while question marks were levelled at her attitude in the immediate aftermath of the sprint final, connections were suggesting it was the fact the hare colour had been changed from semi-final to final that distracted her. Either way, she has some gears!

PEA BALL remains a cracking prospect and won well enough over 480 in the 'blue dog' invitation. He tracked cautiously at a venue he had never run, and did run very wide. Keep him on the right side of bets, but also give Blackrose Mars respect. Denied room be his kennelmate, I thought he ran a cracker in defeat.

Two Nicks and Ballymac Weeshie ran solid races in the 625m final, but the dog with possibly more improvement in him is VIERIS SURPRISE and he made up a lot of ground on his rivals to finish second. He is trained by Dean Childs, who will also have been impressed, and possibly even frustrated, by the performance of DROOPYS ROBSTER in the four-bend invitation. He closed up rapidly on Iceman Ross and Blonde Dino and must be given another chance to strike gold, and when he gets the winning habit back...

The marathon proved a stroll for Head Iton Jordan, but ROOSTER HURLEY continues to be on good terms with herself and will be winning again soon, while in what was a rather muddling affair, SHELBOURNE MERC is clearly a very nice bitch indeed.