MAKE sure to tune into the first Gone To The Dogs - Live! broadcast from Yarmouth tonight (see below) where a three hour-plus programme will bring you the £15,000-to-the-winner final of the Click Competitions 78th East Anglian Derby Final over 462m.
Hosted by Dani Jackson alongside, well, yours truly, Gary Wiltshire, Darrell Williams, Joe Conneely and Emily Wallis, there should be a cracking atmosphere at the seaside venue with a sold out restaurant and bumper crowd on the terraces expected, many of whom will be making their way across the road from Yarmouth races today.
A horse and greyhound racing double - perfect!
So to the main event - and I'm divided.
Druids Say Go is unquestionably drawn for success. Patrick Janssens' bitch gets a plum red-jacket draw with Trumpers Bobcat (Kevin Cobbold) set to take a step to the right from lid-rise which clears the way for the Golden Sprint finalist to show her undoubted gears. A first bend could easily be a winning one for the favourite - and Janssens deserves it.
He numbers East Anglian Derby finalists in double figures and is looking to add to his success with Kilara Lion in 2020 after making the final in back-to-back deciders in the last two years with the luckless Coolavanny Shado. Perhaps Janssens' luck has changed - especially with the inside draw for Druids Say Go. It could have been different in trap two.
So, Druids Say Go is priced accordingly - i.e. short - and perhaps there is value to be had elsewhere with Swift Depot (9.04) catching the eye.
John Mullins' runner lines up as one of three local hopes for the big pot along with Trumpers Bobcat and Murrow Inkosi (Richard Fitch) and none will be finishing stronger than this six-bend winner who rarely runs a bad race.
Admittedly to win tonight he needs to come away and hold his position under pressure from Getup Me Son (Carol Weatherall) but if swinging round the first two bends in a pitch on the outside of Nowhere To Go (Sally Johnson) it could be race-on as the run-in at Yarmouth is one of the longest and most testing. Many races are won - and lost - on that run for home!
Three finals grace the card at Yarmouth with the MWD Partnership Sprint and Derby Purse where the votes go, respectively, to another Janssens runner in Not So Slow (7.39) after his impresisve heat win and Littlers Nuke (8.13) for Team Mullins after making all in his 659m heat. He remains an improver and could edge Breton Molly.
Other fancies include ex-Irish star Romeo Kingpin (8.47) who brings classy form to the table having reached the finals of the Produce Stakes at Clonmel and Kirby Memorial at Limerick. His trials have been decent and he is fancied to make a winning return for the Janssens kennel.
Tonight's 12-race card at the east coast venue can kick off with victory for the Cornelius Condon-trained Bombay Mercury (6.14) from a great pitch inside, while other votes go to Mark Newberry's fast-starting Ballymac Zoomey (6.48), Gemma Evans' well-drawn and speedy Millbank Boiler (7.06) and Belinda Green's strong-running Gary The Arb (7.22).
