This week’s return to Dearham was the penultimate meeting at the venue and there were three races.
There were only three seniors taking part and table leader Silver Dream was a hot favourite.
A report from the first road crossing suggested it was going to be a certainty that Silver Dream would pick up another win and go one point clear of Sportsman.
Once onto the finish Silver Dream showed with a very comfortable lead and crossed the line with time to spare.
In second place was Gary Woodend’s Twilight Mist who was a couple of minutes behind while the third hound which eventually finished was Bill and Pat Mellon and Wac and Tina Airey’s Cracking Last One Two who has struggled to pick up form this year.
The open pups followed and Nicola and Anthony Skelton were looking for Tucker to maintain his 100% record round the Dearham course.
There was a slip of eight and Tucker was sent off as favourite.
When they crossed the road they were all together but once round Tallentire it was Tucker who came into view with a nice lead followed by Busy Rascal and Prospect Jill.
In the end Tucker won easily to notch up his 17th win, now only four points behind Delta Fortune who following his return to running just hasn’t got back to race fitness as yet.
Prospect Jill for Stuart Smith finished well to take second place with Alan Blacklock and Carole Harrison’s Busy Rascal finishing third.
Affirmation for Laura Steel, Andrew Bulman and Gary Woodend ran on well to claim fourth place, with the little bitch Heartside running a good race to take fifth place for Stuart and Jacob Jeynes.
Tanya Satterthwaite’s Pied Piper claimed the last ticket.
The final race of the evening was an open restricted race.
With the major points competition still up for grabs a few hounds that had run the previous day turned out again to try and notch up a few more points.
Blue Striker for Brian and Erin Rowlandson and Billy Birkett was one, Malfunction for Ashley Horn and Sarah White was another. Dream Catcher for Brian and Joy Lister was also turned out again.
With a slip of 13, it was a tight race to call.
As they crossed the first road they were more or less all together.
Once back on the finish it was Jenny Horn’s Spring Return who showed in front and he maintained his lead to cross the line in first place.
We Get By for Sarah White finished well in second place with Stuart and Jacob Jeynes’ Offspring in third.
Blue Striker claimed fourth place and accumulated an additional three points to extend his lead in the Open Restricted points competition taking him clear from his nearest rival Malfunction who although he ran he didn’t ticket for Ashley Horn and Sarah White.
Milo Moon, another hound in contention for the Open Restricted points, finished in fifth place getting two additional points with Jenny Horn’s other hound Spring Ribbon claiming the last ticket of the night.
Blue Striker is now three points clear of Malfunction. Dream Catcher is 11 points adrift with Milo Moon having closed the gap but still remains 20 points behind Blue Striker.
With the weather set to improve over the next two weeks we should have a dry end to the season with some good racing to watch as the two championship titles are still wide open and a number of the points competitions are still all to play for.
October 7 – Dearham
- Hounds – 1. Silver Dream; 2. Twilight Mist; 3. Cracking Last One Two. 3 ran, time 29.05.
- Pups – 1. Tucker; 2. Prospect Jill; 3. Busy Rascal; 4. Affirmation; 5. Heartside; 6. Pied Piper. 8 ran, time 15.43.
- Open Restricted – 1. Spring Return; 2. We Get By; 3. Offspring; 4. Blue Striker; 5. Milo Moon; 6. Spring Ribbon. 13 ran, time 15.46.
