British Performance of the Week - 7 July 2025

British Performance of the Week 

Greyhound of the Year Wicky Ned took his career record 17 wins from 25 races (68%) with his fourth Category One win in the Time Three Steps To Victory at Sheffield. His 660m winning time of 38.98 (+15) was 10 spots slower than Queen Georgia in the same event last year, though his 12.52 sectional was 33 spots quicker than Georgia’s 12.85. Billys Bullet’s 10-year-old track record was recorded on 38.29 (+40) off a 12.97 split. Ned adds T6 to his previous Cat 1 victories from T2 and T3. Which leads to the inevitable question - could he do it from T5 on a cold Monday night at Harlow? I think we all know the answer to that. 

Having gone out of the 2024 Coronation Cup at the semi-final stage, Fabulous Sonique didn’t come into the 2025 event in the best of form. A losing sequence of nine was extended to 10  in the first round when most of the attention was focused on kennelmate New Destiny. But as she finished sore in the semis, Fabulous Sonique came through with a win in 34.96 followed by victory on Friday night in 34.80 (+20). A mention too for Gary The Arb with a 34.74 clocking on the supporting card. 

In addition to the fabulous Firmager females, we were up to our ears in Dave’s Romeo boys this week, no more so than at Towcester than where four obliged on Sunday afternoon. Pick of the quartet was JR Racing Juvenile Classic heat winner Romeo Alliance with a flying 28.66 run on the track where his dad had a best of 28.95. He takes over the Towcester selection from litter brother Romeo Ability who ran an absolute stormer to come from last to first in 29.51. 

Last week’s Hove selection Slick Sentinel was made a 1/2f to keep his title despite making the switch from 500m to 515m. It didn’t go well, though the result could have been worse for the kennel with Romeo Tomcat stepping in with a 30.15 (-20) win. That’s three in a row for the Derby Plate winner. Another kennelmate, Romeo Empire, also completed a six bend hat-trick in 41.89. All of which is good preparation for the Sussex Cup and Regency which get underway next Saturday, July 19. 

It will be three years in September since Romeo Hotshot won the Romford Puppy Cup. Now in the veteran stage, the veteran remains active on the Northern open race circuit but found one too good for him in Killieford Hanna on Sunday night at Pelaw. Roy Smith’s Scottish bred white and black dual distance bitch returned at 3/10f when winning in 36.11 for the 590 metres and has five wins and two seconds in her last eight races. 

Dominoh Hoo Hoo went out of the Gymcrack semi-finals in tame fashion but was then reported in season. She led and faded on her return in a Sunderland open in late June but clearly came on for the run and was the most impressive winner at the track last week with a 26.89 run. She was just 11 weeks post estrus and with the rule of thumb suggesting bitches don’t return to their best until around the 16-week mark, there must be a decent chance of further improvement. 

Occasionally it is possible to predict the race from which the Performer of the Week will be chosen before it takes place. A great example was the six bend open at Swindon on Tuesday which featured a smorgasbord of recent selections. The layers went for Ivergarry (13/8f) from Eagles Respect (3/1) Droopys Suprstar (100/3) and Ballymac Mags (5/1). They finished: Ivergarry-Mags-Eagles-Suprstar with the distances being sh-sh-1½. PGR should be paying Swindon a bonus to repeat the event every week. 

Yarmouth also staged a humdinger of a six-bend open on Saturday night featuring the defending POW and second fastest hound ever of the 659m course, Heres Ringo (13/8f), taking on the bitch who would probably have been considered the best at the track until the previous weekend, Pin All In (2/1). Also in the field was Tell On Aimee (7/4) who had only been beaten a length and a half by Ringo in his 40.14 (+30) run. The favourite broke slightly slower than last week (16.15/16.06) which would cost him. In a thrilling finish, they crossed the line: Pin All In-Heres Ringo-Tell On Aimee. Winning time 40.43 (N). Distances, sh, nk.  

For a bitch who has just missed out in the two biggest gender confined events in the calendar, Icemans Girl looks likely to start as the ante-post favourite for the ARC Angel of the North which gets underway at Newcastle next Thursday. The Gezzy Price-owned, Nathan Hunt-trained Oaks and Empress Stakes runner-up produced the night’s outstanding performance last week with a 28.35 trialstake win. Or are Price/Hunt gambling men with one eye on the Cat One Time Northern Flat? We’ll know by Noon today. 

With no Monday open card due to the hot weather, Nottingham’s graders came to the fore last week. Vale Bluebell made her case for selection by winning an A1 in 30.27 (+20) on Friday. But it was a workmanlike performance being just half a length quicker than A1 winner Cape Island on the same card. However, the previous day, Jason Gray’s Three Steps semi-finalist Loxleys Forest made a triumphant return to Colwick Park when coming through the field to win an A2 in 30.24 (+10). 

The Harlow selections are complicated by a 40 spot swing in going allowances between the track’s six meetings. Quickest of the week was A5 winner Essjay Falstaff with a 26.46 (+40) run. Ballyea Prince weighed in, also in A5 in 26.49 (+20). But we’ve gone for Moaning Versace who landed a second consecutive A4 in 26.65 (N). The Darren Whitton-trained former Crayford (A2) and Yarmouth (A3) grader has won four of her seven outings since switching to The Pinnacles. She is a half-sister to the previous week’s top performer Moaning Hearns. 

There were a whole series of previous Valley top performers in the week’s most intriguing race, a Thursday evening A2. Loot And Shoot, one of the small band of sub28 runners at the track was made the 11/8f with the defending POW Kranky Tom next best at 6/4. But he was caught close home by Anna Jeffery’s 7/2 third favourite Hawkfield Coco whose 28.45 would prove the fastest time of the week. 

Monmore was back to somewhere near normal going this week. Quickest over the standard distance was the Saturday night open race winner Blu Bert with a 28.37 run. Kim Billingham-Hine’s blue completed his slow rise from A5 – at one stage he went 15 races without a win – to catch Nathan Hunt’s promising puppy Whisky Elsa in the latter stages. 

It is a similar tale for Paul Donovan’s Tintreach Tiny who was running in A5 at Central Park two years ago though it only took 11 races before she won her first open win over 540m at Crayford and would later win over the 714m course. An A1 regular at CP ever since, the 24 kilo pocket rocket (who said Droopys Sydney’s daughters are all strapping wenches?) produced the best run of the week at the Kent track with a second consecutive top heat win in 29.38 (-20). 

At 25.6kilos, Fairest View can’t be accused of throwing her weight about at Perry Barr but Simon Deakin’s brindled sprinter produced the outstanding graded performance last week. The 16.15 run for the sprint was her third consecutive D1 win and a new PB. But it was all about Team Deakin at Perry Barr this week with View’s kennelmate Bullseye Bob proving the quickest 480m when landing a cracking A1 in 28.61. (Top grading by the way: ½, sh, ½, 1½, sh). 

Sticking with the little ‘un theme, Bacon Roll seemed to have gone a bit stale in recent months. Over a three month period at the end of last year, Paul Burr’s 24.9 kilo brindle had nine wins and three seconds from 12 races including a 23.37 run for Romford’s 400m that hasn’t been bettered since. On Saturday she was on duty at Oxford and landed a Pall Mall trialstake in 26.78; her third win in a row. The main event closes on Wednesday and starts on Saturday. A mention too for the fabulous Alright Gordy with his fourth consecutive win at the track over two different distances. 

The toughest call of the week was separating the merits of different winners over different distances at Doncaster. The track has been running on the quick side with flying times on both Friday and Saturday – both calculated as ‘N’. First up were graded winners Mustang Mile (D2-16.82) and Foxwood Carter (A1-29.33). Then on Saturday, open winners Keefill Goose and (483m-29.46) and Stonepark Wes who made it three wins from his last four races with a 27.46 win over Keefill Dares. Other opinions are available. 

Lightfoot Elle was beaten by Keefill Dares in her sole open race attempt thus far where she finished 10 lengths down the field at Doncaster. But the Zivkovic kennel’s faith in her ability was justified when she produced the second fastest ‘462’ of the year on her return to Kinsley A3 company. Only Fairyhill Daisy (27.85) has gone quicker, and then by a single spot. Defending POW Ballymac Frisby was just three quarters of a length second.