Derby Final night will contain a race run in memory of Jimmy Wright

A race in the memory of Jimmy Wright will go ahead on Derby Finals night as the first race on the card, sponsored by Angela Harrison, Ian Sutherland and others. Wright passed away at the end of February, losing his battle with Motor Neurone Disease.

Wright met his great friend Rab McNair on the flapping scene and there would not be a dry eye in the house at Towcester on June 14 if Liz McNair were to train the winner of Jimmy's race. Sometimes these scripts do just write themselves in this sport. 

It was when the license was moved into Harrison's name that the kennel managed to get runners into the Derby final in back-to-back years, going closest in 2018.  

2019 - Droopys Expert

The 2017 All England Cup winner closed out his career in the 2019 Derby. An October 2015 whelp, he was closing in on veteran status at the end of June 2019, lining up at Nottingham as a 12/1 chance. The Derby Final draw had been a poor one for him, sporting the orange jacket on his back in the race.

Earlier in his career, he was able to overcome wider draws but trying to do that in a race as deep as a Derby final was beyond him. He found trouble around the opening couple of bends and was never able to land a blow. Priceless Blake picked up the win that year for Paul Hennessy, one of five Irish winners from the last six runnings of the race. 

2018 - Droopys Verve

The year before Droopys Expert, the Harrison-trained Droopys Verve made his way though to the final at Towcester. Frustratingly for connections, he picked the worst time to produce the slowest sectional that he did all the way through the competition, failing by a length and a half to claw back Dorotas Wildcat who had led up through the middle. 

Dorotas Wildcat would make the semis the following year but he would finish fourth on his swansong. One of the three who would finish in front of him in his final ever race was Droopys Expert, just a week before he too retired. 

Verve would go to Ireland on his next start after the Derby to win the Dundalk International, the first UK trained winner of that event since Dynamic Fair won his second in 1997. It was a track record breaking run, a record that still stands almost seven years later.