British Performance of the Week - 24 August 2026

Picture from Monmore X feed

Monmore finals crown a superb week

Saturday night at Monmore saw two Category One competitions come to their end. It was a tough choice to make between Fortanach Col and Woltemade but the former is a perfect 4/4 since being stepped up to six bends and he narrowly won the vote. It was a final with plenty of unexposed staying types and should be a decent guide to some of the St Leger hopefuls as they start to emerge for Dunstall Park.

While two Category One events came to a close last week, Nottingham opened another with the heats of the Arena Racing Company Puppy Classic. Nicky Swithin was the best of the first round winners on a night when rather too many of the heats saw trouble, though with inexperienced pups, that is sometimes going to happen. 

There was a near miss on the Romford sprint track record by Bretons Girl on Friday night. She has produced most of her winning form this year over the 400m distance here, last scoring over this trip in January. Despite that, she was absolutely electric from the lids on the drop back in trip, producing the run of her life. 

Smokestack Saxon has announced himself on the scene in no uncertain fashion this summer for the Jason Heath team, adding another win to his tally over 500m at Hove on Thursday night. It was his first outing since taking the Coral Sussex Cup at the track on the first day of the month, becoming just the fourth dog this year to dip under the 29-second barrier for the distance. 

A 40-dead time over Central Park's 664m trip is a strong effort. Romeo Empire stopped the clock at 40.05 on Saturday night on a very slow track that was subsequently rated -60. The going took him a spot inside of the track record, so it will be interesting to see if he can produce similar on a quicker surface. 

There was a solid time over six bends at Doncaster from Magical Supreme. This was only the second time in his career that he has been seen over the longer trip, winning both of them so far. The pick of his form has all come at this track so far, but he is young enough to be capable of showing it elsewhere in time. 

Keeping with the theme of six bends, and Witton Gucci took the award for Sunderland. She had picked up Performance of the Week for Star Pelaw last week, adding another track this time around. It was the sixth fastest time of the year at the venue with four of the five ahead of her all coming during the Arena Racing Company Grand Prix, and three of those were in the final.

At the other end of the distance spectrum was Illnotbedown who produced the Star Pelaw best of the week. The 245m distance has seen plenty of sharp times this year and his was another. 14.28 was the quickest of the year in 2025 but it was only good enough to tied for fifth this time around. 

Completing the spin around the north east is Romeo Dutch at Newcastle. He has been in flying winning form at Sunderland of late, scoring victories over both two and four bends. His trapping is making him very hard to contain, adding a win trying this far for the first time in his career.

There was open racing at three different tracks on Sunday, with all of them producing the performance of the week at their respective. courses. Makeit River is a veteran but she showed the best early gears to get herself to the front in a bitches contest and was never reeled in, despite an Oaks and Produce Stakes semi-finalist turning second to her. 

At Sheffield, it was Aero Noduff who took the award on a day where there was very little to choose between the winning times at four different distances. She is still a puppy which certainly added a little bit of extra to consider into the decision, as well as being one of the nicest bred bitches in training. 

Romeo Victor had twice chased home Romeo Dutch at Sunderland of late for Tom Heilbron, making a wide-margin winning start to life at Valley for Steven Howard. He clocked the fastest of the times in the heats of the SIS British Bred Standard, making the final as the sole seeded runner. 

There were a couple of opens at Yarmouth on Saturday night with the East Anglian Derby moving ever closer but it was the graded win of Montana Tiger that was produced in a considerably quicker time than either of the opens. This was the top effort in his career to this point, which sees him as a local to be wary of for the EAD.

A sub 16-second sprint run is always a decent effort at Dunstall Park and last week it was Mayahs Ace who produced that feat. She is an A2 winner at the track but the best of her limited runs so far have come over this trip, though she is still in single figure runs for her career overall. 

Kinsley saw another week of quick track conditions with the A4 win of Grantstown Road coming on a +40 surface. Despite that, it was enough to see him land the prize at a level where he has won on four of his last six starts. 

We close out with Harlow and Moaning Saliba, producing yet another winner for Darren Whitton in this column. He was knocked over and had a fall within his first six starts, which could have knocked his confidence, not chasing in a Nottingham trial back in July. Connections have got him back rolling again, landing his third straight win.