Floyd's Column - The best Derby final of my lifetime

Floyd's Column

On Saturday night I witnessed what I can only describe as the best Derby Final of my lifetime. Certainly, the most thrilling and competitive that I have either experienced in-person or watched on video. 

In terms of overall quality, how can you Top Trump a final that included the defending English and Irish Derby winners, plus the runner-up from the latter? 

Throw in Bombay Pat, a 29.19 Irish Derby quarter final winner, who missed a place in the same Irish final by a head. 

At the other end of the scale – given just reasonable fortune – the barely two-year-old Sole Mio should have an exciting career in front of him. 

Whether Droopys Plunge will be remembered as a great Derby winner remains to be seen. But it is early days. At just two and a half, he wouldn’t be the first hound to win a Derby on his ascendancy with his peak still to come. He is certainly young enough to have at least one more Derby in him. 

The Janssens’ runner might have been a 10/1 chance on the night, and the 28.76 winning time wasn’t electric, but he has two 28.57 wins on his card, which is only six spots slower than Bockos Diamond’s best run over course and distance and one spot faster than De Lahdedah’s track record equalling run in last year’s final.  

Besides, judging by the way he is running on, the 500 metres might be just a few metres short of Plunge’s optimum. He was still leading the strong finishing De Lahdedah around the bend after the winning line.  

It is on occasions like this that I wish we had a UK equivalent of the Shelbourne ‘600’. 

I never attended West Ham though the old dog men tell me that the Custom House 600 yard trip was the ultimate ‘extended four bends’ in Britain 

Droopys Plunge, like Cesarewitch/Derby double winners Mile Bush Pride and Pigalle Wonder, would surely have loved it. 

Other reflections on the race.  

A reminder of what a fair gallop Towcester is with its huge radius bends and decent run-in. 

Droopys Plunge (Rls, QAw, FinWell, LdRnIn ) followed recent winners De Lahdedah (RlsTMid, EP, Ld2) and Romeo Magico (RlsTMid, EP, Led 1/2) in winning from off the pace. 

Early pace shouldn’t be the all-important factor in a Derby winner. It should be the ultimate test of the best performers over 500m/503m. 

How competitive was it? All six runners were covered by less than three lengths in the final. 

Barring the very sad injury to Dynamic Force in the semi-finals, the majority of qualifying races resulted in tight finishes, particularly once the makeweights were out. 

The average first-to-last aggregate distance in the third round heats (47 runners) was less than eight and a half lengths. It was almost identical in the quarter finals and the other semi final. 

I challenge you to find anything similar in a major Aussie race, even just counting the first six to cross the line. 

In comparison with Wimbledon, which was consistently praised for its racing surface, Towcester was, once again, different gravy. 

In the height of summer, the Wimbledon going could vary within the space of an hour and going then fluctuated further following the introduction of the bowser. 

Towcester’s going was incredibly consistent across the six weeks. The second round, quarters, semis and final were all run on genuine ‘N’ going. 

Finally, I don’t know how many dogs actually went lame in the event but there appeared to be very few serious issues, barring the previously mentioned Hennessy runner. 

By chance, when compiling some Remember When material, I was looking through the Derby results from Wimbledon in 2015.  

In addition to the three broken hocks in the qualifying round, a further four hounds, including Irish star Sidarian Blaze and Oaks winner Cashen Maureen, suffered career ending injuries in the first round. 

To summarise, I have long believed Towcester to be the best racing circuit in Britain or Ireland and the 2025 Derby did nothing to change that view. 

Greyhound Derby stories 

I’ll round off my Derby thoughts with a couple of personal stories that emerged from it. 

The first concerns the industry’s best known physio Ron Mills who was at the Derby lunch, exactly 11 years after he and Bruno Berwick pulled off the ultimate ‘A6 to Derby winner’ story with Salad Dodger. 

We shared a comment about how these events are a stark reminder of the passing of time, as we sometimes barely recognise old faces (quite literally). 

It was also a reminder that as long as you have known people, you can still be surprised by the parts of their lives that you knew nothing about. 

Ron dropped into conversation, “I was only saying last week, how a lot of the lads who I played football with are gone now.” 

Didn’t realise that you played Ron. 

“Yes, for Millwall. But I was thinking about when I played for the FA Youth Team, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst, though I think Geoff is still around. . . .” 

Gulp! 

Finally, I managed to evade the security and make my way to the Boothby Suite on Saturday night where the industry’s great and good (plus others), were imparting their wisdom. 

I wanted to catch up with promoter Kevin Boothby to verify the widespread rumours that have been knocking around for weeks regarding his health. 

He confirmed it. 

“Yes it is leukaemia. Apparently, this particular type is quite unusual for people of my age. It would normally occur with people in their late seventies but it can be brought on by stress.” 

I’m not proposing to go into the reasons why Kevin might have felt under pressure but it is entirely relevant to the wider Derby story. 

But for Kevin, there would be no Towcester Derby, or any greyhound racing at the track. 

And what would the Derby look like? 

It cost him dearly to keep the Derby winner’s prize money at £175K. Would the Irish have come over in such force if it was the £100K that Nottingham paid out in 2019? 

Let’s not forget, there were no Covid restrictions until 2020 when the prize understandably dropped to £60K. 

Thankfully, the Boss (that’s Mike Davis, not Bruce Springsteen), insisted on it remaining at that level this year. 

So the next time one of the bitter-and-twisteds goes onto the forums to slag off Big Kev, the comments should be restricted to people who have contributed more to the game. 

Here is a list of the suitably qualified warriors . . . . . . . .