Greyhound Betting: It's great to see Horseshoe Ping still doing the business

General / Jonathan Hobbs / 12 December 2008 / Leave a Comment

Jonathan Hobbs gets excited as he looks ahead to week which offers multiple betting opporunities...

What a great few days it promises to be.

Friday sees a new six-bend star go for gold again in Masterful at Romford; Sunday sees Setanta show live the Golden Jacket final at Galway; Monday features a betting shop bonanza in the shape of Monmore's Xmas Festival heats and Tuesday's Oaks final card, live on Sky, is just a cracker. Pardon the pun.

Throw in the National Sprint semi-finals at Nottingham, which share the open-race spotlight with Monmore on Monday, and there is clearly no let up in top-class open-race action as we dive headlong into the Xmas period.

Starting with Masterful, John Millard's dog looked the real deal judged on his heat win in a maiden 575m competition. He has serious pace to burn in the middle of the race and stayed on well enough. And, of course, is continuing to frank the form of what was a brilliant Romford Puppy Cup final.

Deanridge Ammo and Droopys Goran, two other finalists, clash again at Wimbledon on Tuesday in what is an outstanding puppy contest, while a host of other stars grace the programme, including the likes of Romeo Maldini, Lochbo Meg and Deanridge Fury, while I can't wait to see the enigmatic Vatican Iona in the marathon. She is doing her best Scurlogue Champ impersonation just now - catch Darrell Williams' TV tips on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, it's great to see Horseshoe Ping still doing the business. This brilliant veteran, winner last year of the Scurry, is favourite to win the National Sprint after a terrific heat win and elimination of Boherbradda Mac. But as with most of the field, it is whoever beats David Pruhs's team will win - Pruhs has six of the semi-finalists!

Now, chances are that he will struggle to strike a blow, but I thought Setantas Magic ran with credit in his National Sprint heat. He trapped as well as anything on the night and might, just might, be worth a few shekels each-way outright. He is in the weaker semi on Monday and does have a decent enough draw.

Elsewhere, Droopys Bocelli absolutely took off in a sprint at Hove on Thursday and is clearly a greyhound to watch just now. He is also from a kennel with a good strike-rate in Liz McNair, who are building a nice team of dogs just now including the likes of Shaneboy Luke and King Edward, both of whom run at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

Forest Tyson is another dog seemingly going places and was rewarded with a nice win on the Hove card. He, too, is worth keep tabs with.