Blue is the colour so far in the Derby

If you're on the blue...

We are 56 of the 59 Star Sports & Orchestrate Ltd English Greyhound Derby races down and it has been a bluewash so far for winners. That was not the case so much in the first couple of rounds but six of the eight third round heats all went to trap two as did three of the four quarter finals! That's 75% of the last 12 Derby contests all going to the blue jacket.

The figures across the 56 races are as follows:

Derby trap Winners - 56 races 

T1 - 10 - 18%  

T2 - 19 - 34%

T3 - 5 - 9% 

T4 - 9 - 16%

T5 - 8 - 14% 

T6 -5 - 9% 

Towcester has long had a reputation of being a track for the inside runners. You only need to take a look at the graded cards at the track to see that one thing that Towcester is badly lacking are any wide runners. There are just eight in total from 12 races on the Friday afternoon card after 14 in 12 races yesterday as an example.

A bigger surprise has been the lack of winners from the white jacket. Could it be that a mixture of dogs drawn in the wrong traps has perhaps not helped with so many 'railers' in the competition? That stat stands out like a sore thumb as an anomaly. 

Trap five has had the most vacant traps which would push the win percentage closer to 15.5% on winner to runner ratio rather than the bare per race.

Runners qualified

Trap six is not so far behind in the figures when it comes to the traps who have qualified for the next round. While still bottom, the striped jacket is only a couple of percent adrift of both traps three and five. 

Once more it is trap two who leads the way with an astounding 67% of all runners to sport the blue jacket so far in the competition making it into the draw for the next round. That's great news for the Mark Wallis-trained pair Proper Heiress and Strike It Skye who both sport the blue jacket in the semis. 

1 - 30/54 - 55.55%

2 - 37/55 - 67.27%

3 - 24/53 - 45.28%

4 - 31/55 - 56.36%

5 - 23/52 - 44.23%

6 - 23/54 - 42.59%

Towcester 500m Open Winners - Year to date

There have been 151 opens over 500m so far in 2026. That's gives us almost an extra 100 races with which to play but it is remarkable how similar the numbers are across the board, even down to the white jacket having a serious struggle throughout the year.

T1 - 17.2%

T2 - 31%

T3 - 11.8%

T4 - 20.7%

T5 - 13.4%

T6 - 10.2%

48% of the winners coming from one of the two inside traps is a fair old whack in anyone's book with the poor old striped jacket lagging behind at a similar clip to that which we have seen so far in the Derby. 

Towcester 500m Open Winners - 2025

It was the red jacket that was on top last year in the opens run at the track with four of the other five traps covered by barely 3%. The bias towards the inner three traps is certainly still evident, though not quite as pronounced as it is this year with 43% of the winners coming from the inside pair of boxes.  

T1 - 24%

T2 - 19%

T3 - 16.8%

T4 - 14.6%

T5 - 16%

T6 - 19.1%

Towcester 500m Graded Winners - 2026

So, what about the graded runners this year? Just 4.3% cover the best winning percentage from the worst with trap two on the bottom of the pile! There have been 509 graded races run over the 500m trip at the time of writing so fair play to those in the racing office and those who work on the surface who have combined to produce a very level playing field.  

T1 - 19.6%

T2 - 15.7%

T3 - 17.6%

T4 - 20%

T5 - 16.6%

T6 - 17.3% 

With only three races left in the 2026 Derby, the blue jacket has won the trap challenge by a street but can it finish the job?