Oscar returns with a bang at Nottingham for Nathan Hunt

Newinn Oscar impresses at Nottingham 

Last autumn there was a string of impressive runs from Newinn Oscar at Nottingham. Last night, Nathan Hunt's black retuned to the track to produce the quickest 480m run of the year so far. There were only 15 times quicker in 2025 to put the performance into perspective. 

Both Skyfall Mini (who won Performance of the Week) and Killieford Goram were winners last week at the track, and both were comfortably seen off by the son of Droopys Sydney. He was bringing up a hat-trick of wins in the process after a pair of top grade successes at his home track of Monmore.

When Eagles Respect ran six times at Nottingham in the first half of 2025, it didn't really look like a track that he relished. The Produce Stakes winner has grown up plenty since those early forays, however, and returned last night with a powerful performance to score for Angie Kibble. Given it was his first go round since May 5, there is probably a few spots for him to find on that effort.

The top sprinting run of the night came from Robert Copping's Buster Eight. He got the job done on his UK debut at the track last week and it was no surprise to see him impress more this time around. Officially on the calculated clock he went backwards a spot, though that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Forrest Gump once said "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." The beauty of Peter Holland's Velvet Madrid is that you know exactly what you'll get from her, all out commitment to the cause. She picked up win 29 last night as she nears a century of starts, 14 of those have come in opens. A veteran next month, she is still performing right at the top of her game.

Another who has rarely run a bad race of late is Easy Maximus for Gwyneth Rees. He picked up a 480m contest last night to book his place into a final next week alongside Newinn Oscar and Velvet Madrid. It was his fourth win in his last 10, only finishing out of the first three in one of those starts when uncharacteristically slow away.

There was a second sprint on the card which went to Dean Blackbird's Tullymurry Shine. At 11/1, she was the biggest surprise on the night for punters but she has a habit of popping up like that. She was a 16/1 scorer when beating Sunnyside Jayden at Sunderland on Premier Greyhound Racing Classic final night back in November, so has more than enough smart back form to think with hindsight she was well overpriced.