Burton confident of bold show in Birmingham Cup following Droopys double last Monday

Burton confident of bold show in Birmingham Cup following Droopys double last Monday

Droopys Aladdin and Droopys Suprstar head into their Arena Racing Company Birmingham Cup semi-finals on Monday on the back heat victories at Nottingham last week, with Droopys Aladdin yet again looking to overcome a poor looking draw.

Known as a tight railer, Droopys Aladdin has drawn trap four again for the fourth time in his last five starts, which is far from ideal for Mike Burton’s charge, and indeed, in his previous nineteen starts, he has only been drawn in the red box on four occasions but has been victorious on all four of those starts, but Burton thinks it has added to his education

Burton said “I don’t know how we keep managing to get trap four with him, and it’s been the same with Droopys Suprstar, his last couple of competitions he seems to have been in trap four as well!

“But in fairness to him, I think it’s added to his education. When we prepared him for Derby earlier this year, he got involved in a spectacular incident in a race at Towcester. Just before the first bend, he got caught from behind and catapulted over the rail into the middle. Amazingly,  he landed on his feet, jumped back over the rail onto the track and continued the race, but it was obviously declared as a no race. We got him checked over, checked his rib cage, his neck, legs, spine and feet and they were fine, so the vet checked him over as well and said it was just superficial and nothing to worry about!”

“We brought him back from that carefully, but it didn’t affect him at all, he didn’t lose any confidence and it’s the same with these runs from four now. Last week at Nottingham, he did head towards the rails but he stayed a bit straighter on the run up. There’s been times before when he’s trapped and turned left immediately and bumped with the dog on his inside which slowed the pair of them down, but now it’s not quite so immediate that he heads towards the rails and I think he will be ok again on Monday. He still retains his explosive early pace and if he comes away again on Monday, he will take plenty of catching"

“He’s the most laid back dog in the kennel and he’s a very easy dog to train with a lovely personality. We will probably look to give him a bit of a break after this as he’s been on the go for a while “

Burton continued “With Droopys Suprstar, he was staying on really well over four bends but there’s always the concern as a puppy whether it’ll be too soon and take a lot out of him or whether it’ll have a lasting effect, so we took our time with him before stepping up to six bends with him."

"He’s done very well though and won a few races including setting a track record at Valley, and he ran against good company over the six bends, but it was always the intention to drop him back down again. They can sometimes regain their sharpness again as a result as he showed at Nottingham last week in the Birmingham Cup heat when he actually broke quite well, which I was pleased with"

“If he is anywhere near the leader at the first bend on Monday, he would have every chance of picking them up and the long run in at Nottingham gives him plenty of time to reel in the dog in front as he did last time out”

“It would be nice to see Aladdin winning a big competition as he’s reached a few semi-finals now and made the quarter final of the Derby, but the main thing is to look after him as I’d like to be able to take him to next years Derby and by then he will have strengthened up even more and we would have high hopes of him next year”

Where that Derby will be held is still anyone’s guess, but Burton was keen to praise two of the more likely contenders and their tracks to stage next year’s competition, ARC with Dunstall Park, and Mike Davis with Towcester

“It’s exciting times as this development at Woverhampton is wonderful for the game. ARC have made a great contribution to greyhound racing, and I also think that Towcester will thrive under Mike Davis. Mike is someone who I’ve known for a good few years and I worked with his father at White City. But they are important people at the head of two of our main tracks, and whoever gets the Derby, let’s hope that the other track that doesn’t get it can stage a few other big events themselves as both track have fantastic facilities"

" Maybe in the future ARC can have a look at a few of their other horse racing tracks and maybe build a greyhound track there. Over the years, all the small 5-10 acre sites where tracks used to be built on have mostly all gone as the value of the land is so high and the last two tracks to have been opened have been at horse racing venues, and these venues can hold multi purpose events, we just need to keep our tin hats on and take these people on board"