Abrey looking forward to a good night of racing as Gone To The Dogs Live! show moves on to big race finals night at Hove

Abrey looking forward to a good night of racing as Gone To The Dogs Live! show moves on to classy finals night card at Hove

Following a fantastic evening of Greyhound Racing at Newcastle last Thursday, the Gone To The Dogs Live! show comes to you from Hove on Saturday evening, bringing you live coverage of a superb card, the highlights of which are the two category one finals, the Premier Greyhound Racing Regency over 695m with a winners prize of £20,000, and the Coral Sussex Cup over 515m, worth £10,000 to the winner

Whilst speaking to Hove Racing Manager Rob Abrey, you could hear the excitement in his voice when talking about the card on Saturday, especially the two big finals. It can often be said that Racing Office's and/or Racing Manager's aren't bothered by the racing at their track, but having worked at dozens of big race meetings myself, nothing can be further from the truth. You get a buzz when you have some of the biggest names in Greyhound Racing appearing at your track in front of the cameras and that certainly is the case with Abrey as we spoke on Monday evening.

"I’ve been really pleased with how both competitions have go so far" he said.  "We had a really strong entry with plenty of big names at the high end of the markets and the supporting opens have filled quite well which I’m really pleased with as well"

"We’ve got races over five different distances including a 955m marathon, which is the first we have ran since 2023 and that’s a six dog race which I’m really pleased with. I’ve put that in the middle of the card so that we can showcase that".

"As well as having races over five different distances, we have a puppy race, standard, bitches, maiden so we have plenty of variation on the type and distance of race,  it’s like an old school kind of night and we’ve also got the four finals across four distances" 

The Mark Wallis trained Mongys Wild and Proper Heiress will head to the traps as short priced favourites to land their respective competitions, the Premier Greyhound Racing Regency over 695m and the Coral Sussex Cup over 515m and I asked Abrey if he thought both runners could be beaten, or if they are just a class apart from the rest.

He said "I like to take on favourites but I wouldn’t really want to take on those two! On Mongys Wild’s first run here when he recorded 41.71, I felt you could beat him, but then he did what he did last week after being crowded in running. He’s got trackcraft, he’s got stamina and he’s almost the full package and he is hard to look past but there are some good dogs in the race."

"Garfiney Blaze is classy, Droopys Invent will look to be away and gone, Art Riddler ran really well when winning his semi final, not on the clock, but he just ran really well and we all know how good Romeo Empire is. It’s a really good final but it’s not set in stone by any means but I’d imagine that Mongys Wild will be a warm order and rightfully so but he may have to do things the hard way"

He continued, "With the way Proper Heiress is running then he will take all the beating. He loves Hove having won the Olympic last year, but again, it’s another hard race with some real good dogs involved".

" Queen Shakira adores Hove, we know Chelms Bear will be rattling home and he produced a good time in defeat last week, Slick Sentinel loves having his own way out wide and If he can get loose in the early stages, then he could cause a few problems and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ower Mystery held up Proper Heiress in the early exchanges. Proper Heiress will be the favourite but this is Hove, it’s a fair track and anything can win"

Aside from the two category one finals, there Is also the final of the category two Coral Sussex Cup Sprint Trophy over 285m which sees a top class field competing for the £3,000 to the winner prize 

"We had a real strong entry for a two round competition and the sprinters have come out to play. Shadow Storm suffered his first defeat in four last week but still ran well in defeat, Queen Sinead loves Hove and showed what she can do last week, Roanna Mamba put in a really good 16.26 in his first race at Hove and we all know what King Presley and Ballinakill Liam are capable of. I was going to sit on the fence but I’ll side with the local lad Richard Rees so I’ll go with Shadow Storm, so I won’t get into trouble with Mr Rees! It’s a great sprint."

"We’ve also got a category three final over 500m and it’s a shame we’ve got five railers in it again, but I’ll side with So Cool. He really likes Hove, he was a finalist in the Puppy Cup Final behind Headford Asher back in April and he could take advantage of there being five railers inside"

"I’m also pleased with the undercard as well and there’s a few interesting match up’s. It’s good to see King Memphis coming back again and he will probably be quite a warm order in the betting. We’ve obviously got the 955m marathon and that will be a real stern test of a greyhound. Ower Smasher is not the force of old but she get’s it well and then some, and Salacres Belleza was a good winner at Newcastle over 895m last time out. It should be a really really good night"