Burton "tries" to reach Derby Semi Finals with Droopys Aladdin

I last spoke to trainer Mike Burton back in February when he was looking to land a first Category One winner with Droopys Suprstar, who lined up in the Final of the Ladbrokes Winter Derby.

 Suprstar went on to finish fifth behind Proper Heiress but in that interview, he mentioned a young July 23 puppy called Droopys Aladdin, who back then had only had the one previous outing, when making all the running from Droopys Heiress at Monmore earlier that month.

At the time, Burton said “We’ve looked after him of late and haven’t wanted to push him too much”, he explained. “He’s got so much early pace and hopefully he can be out and gone again, he will be one to go for the Puppy Derby. Will he go to Towcester as well? We will have to see, it’s a long way round to the pick up at Towcester and being an early paced type it may take a lot out of him, but we will see how he gets on at Monmore first”.

Fast forward three months later and Droopys Aladdin lines up in a Greyhound Derby Quarter Final on Saturday Evening, having won two of his previous three rounds, including when lowering the colours of Proper Heiress (pictured below) in the First Round and Burton talks about how he has progressed through to the Quarter Final stage.

“It’s hard to say how well I thought he get on in the Derby”, he said

“We had him when he was six or seven months old and then he started producing some good runs in trials and you think blimey we’ve got a good one here. So then I thought do we go for the Derby with him this year or next year but he got knocked out of the Puppy Derby Semi Final at Monmore behind Rackethall Brute and I thought that was because I put him in a competition and it may have been too much for him”

“So I gave him a rest for a few weeks and then took him to Towcester for a race, but I was concerned at it’s a big circuit and you do another half a lap round to the pick up. Anyway, in that race there was an almighty collision before the first bend and he got knocked up in the air but landed on his feet having twisted in the air, and jumped over the rail which resulted in a no race”

“We gave him a trial again a few weeks later, and just thought you know what, I’ll put him in. He’s been coming out of his races very well and I think he is getting his normal training from his racing by not over doing things. The ground has been hard of late so we’ve not been galloping him in case he does a shoulder or a wrist, so we’ve been taking him for walks to keep him ticking over, but he has been fortunate with the gaps inbetween his races. The First Round was on a Thursday and had eight days until the Second Round on the Friday and then another eight days until the Third Round on Saturday”

Burton continued “I was astounded when he beat Proper Heiress in the First Round. He had been running so well in the weeks beforehand that I wondered if something was maybe wrong with him, but as the week’s have gone on his performances have shown that he is a good Greyhound. After the Puppy Cup at Monmore, I had people wanting to buy him but he said he wasn’t for sale. I wanted to go on a journey with him like I did with Screen Critic many years ago when Kevin Hutton trained him for us”.

“I’ve got every confidence in him for Saturday though. He’s an arrogant little so and so and he doesn’t know what price he is. There’s every chance that the three on the outside could come together at some stage so if he can lead round the opening bends, can the likes of Cheap Sandwiches reel him in?”

Burton played Rugby at the highest level and spoke about a time playing for the British Lions which could be likened to Droopys Aladdin

“I played against South Africa at Ellis Park in front of 100,000 people and at that point I had done everything in the game. We were nervous and banged the walls on the way out to get ourselves up for the game, but in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself, “Am I good enough for this”, because if you aren’t good enough in some of those scrums, you can break your back.

"There was one guy called Niek Bezuidenhout and I looked at him and thought “**** I’ve got to play against you”, and there was a hooker called Piston Van Wyk who never smiled, so I thought next time I go in for a scrum and our heads are close together, I’ll give him one on the side of the head. He jumped up after and started moaning in Afrikana and I just thought we are ok here, they are no better than us”.

"And it’s similar with Greyhound Racing, you can think you’re not as good as some of your rivals, but then you find out that you are. When I went back out there for a second time, I thought “I’ve played you, I know I can beat you”, and it’s the same with the dogs. If I think they are good enough then I’ll give them their chance".