General / The Hawk / 24 August 2009 / Leave a comment

The Hawk trains his beady eye on a promising whelp and a big dog who can shrug off the odd knock...

"Up Tempo is a relatively big greyhound who should take a knock or two – but such a bump did he receive on Saturday afternoon that he was forced to check out wide, taking two more dogs with him."

Minerva Rose is a bitch coming back into form at Hall Green and has now run two decent races in A6 having been contesting A5 competition not too long ago.

The Westmead Joe December 2007 whelp is not devoid of early pace, but stays relatively well in this A6 grade and has now run two good back to back races.

Two runs ago, she met an impressive young dog in Moset Minstral, who was the subject of a substantial gamble. She stayed on well up the home straight having been overtaken approaching the final bend by the winner. She eventually went down by the shortest of short heads.

Then, last Monday she ran another eye catching race in the grade. Having opened up the 3:25 favourite on course, she drifted alarmingly in the off course market to [4.0]. In the race itself she never got into contention, but I noted her making a little ground up on the rails off the final turn.

She is a type I like, as her SP's are continually big, and she doesn't posses blistering early toe, which means she will often be ignored in the betting. However she runs tight on the rails and if drawn inside a couple of fast breaking middle to rails dogs next time she could be worth a punt at what could be an attractive Betfair price.

Minerva Rose Hall Green A6

Up Tempo was most unlucky at the first bend at Newcastle last week and the black son of Sonic Flight is, in my opinion, a winner just waiting to happen at the track.

Up Tempo is a relatively big greyhound who should take a knock or two - but such a bump did he receive on Saturday afternoon that he was forced to check out wide, taking two more dogs with him. He still ran on well, but for those on course supporters who had backed him into [3.0] favourite that was no compensation

Up Tempo won in this A2 grade about four weeks ago in a fairly decent 29.58, but as a dog who can't go a dazzling early pace he does rely on his late finishing pace - he just needs to miss any trouble at the opening two bends and turn in a handy position to win soon.

Up Tempo is one of those dogs which is probably too good for A2 at Newcastle, but can't make it at A1. He has contested four A1s in his last 11 races, losing them all. But he has won two from nine A2's and I expect him to make it three very soon.

Up Tempo Newcastle A2

Tags: Greyhounds betting, Minerva Rose, Nottingham Greyhounds Racing Track, The Hawk, Up Tempo