Two marathon winners amongst the top performances last week

British Performance of the Week

There is only one place we can start this week and that is with the Category One winning King Memphis who romped away with the final of the BGBF British Bred Derby on Sunday afternoon at Towcester. A veteran performer these days, he has clearly still got an awful lot of ability in his legs and they carried him to a smart time.

It was the semi-finals of the bet365 Puppy Oaks at Oxford on the same afternoon but although Soapy Suds produced the best performance there, it is the eight-bend debut of Ballymac Madgie that takes the award. A Challenge Cup finalist behind Vhagar last week, and a Hunt Cup finalist back in April, she clearly loves this track.

Continuing with the debut marathon theme beating out Category One semi-final form, we head to Newcastle where Greenwell Gypsy absolutely romped away with the 895m contest on Thursday night. Santas Amigo was a slick winner of his All England Cup heat and Strike It Skye impressed again but it is another winner for the eight-bend contingent after a very taking performance. 

At the other end of the distance spectrum is Shadow Storm who was the quickest winner of the three Arena Racing Company National Sprint semis at Nottingham. He has enjoyed an exceptional year in competitions, looking to pick up a third Category Two of the year in the final. It is a remarkable record that he is putting together given how few starts he has made.

There was a serious run at Suffolk Downs from Tell On Amie who stopped the clock a single spot off the 548m track record with her win on Tuesday. She has some solid efforts in the past but nothing to suggest that she was going to produce a run like this. It will be interesting to see if she is able to back this run up with a similar one when she is next seen.

Capel Moon was not quite as close to the Central Park clock over six bends on Saturday night but she was only seven spots back. She is still relatively unexposed over this sort of distance and while another 67m and much stronger rivals would await her if connections decide to go to the Cesarewitch with her, the early gears that she possesses over this far will take some of the stronger stayers well out of their comfort zone in the early stages.

Another week, another Fabulous Sonique win at Romford, this one seeing her stop the clock at under 35 seconds. She has seven wins in her last eight races now and with the opening round of the Essex Vase coming up in just two and a half weeks time, if she can remain in this level of form, she's going to be a big player.  

The Dunstall Park win from Kilara Berb on Friday was a smart performance, both in its own right and because he got the better of Pain Barrier who has produced some of the top runs at the track since it opened. A perfect 3/3 here and with a pair of those seeing him clock under 28.10, connections will be looking forward to the new year with him.

Jason Heath's Burrows Eclipse takes the Hove award this week, dipping under 29 seconds for the 500m distance. Given that he was a Hunt Cup finalist over 650m back in the spring and the pick of his Irish form came over further, he has enjoyed a decent second half of the year over trips that are short enough for him. He has decent early pace for a stayer and when he turns in front over four bends, it takes a smart run to stop him.

There was a string of excellent efforts at Sheffield on Sunday afternoon, most notably the 28.50 win from Romeo Steel. He has a string of smart times at the track this year but just two lengths slower than him and on his race debut was Ted Soppitt's Ballymac Buddy. His litter are clearly well above average with his brother Woltemade making a huge impression on his debut at Newcastle. 

At Doncaster it was Haggard Badger who stole the show, winning for the fourth week in a row over the 483m trip. In Epic Rebel he faced a rival who has shown some top notch form over the track and trip this year and one who had beaten him at the end of November. A quick break  versus a slow break make the difference. 

Staying in Yorkshire and it was Lundhill Ellie who took the top spot at Kinsley. She has won six of her last seven races at the track for Sylvia Oakes, powering home to pick things up late on once more. For a bitch who was marked 'not chasing' early in 2024, things have turned around since and she is now one of the strongest runners at the track.

Star Pelaw saw Popper Joe just edge the award given that he beat an open field that included Killieford Goram and a quick winner last week in Moanteen Pudding. Here Comes Bob went half a length quicker when winning an A4 on the same Sunday night card but he will have chances down the line of making it into this column down the line as the weekly winner judged on that impressive UK debut.

Shinjim Magic rounds out the tracks in that part of the world with the Sunderland award. He has only been seen in A1 company on five occasions in 2025, winning four of them. A half-brother to Irish sprint flying machine Gizmo Cash, he has plenty of speed himself, winning a pair of opens at this track and one at Newcastle earlier on in the year.

The track championship semi-finals at Yarmouth saw Kereight Fraud produce a very impressive 27.30 for Erica Samuels. She has never gone as quick as that in her career so far, a flying 5.15 split sending her on her way to eighth quickest time of 2025 so far. 

There was only graded action at Monmore once more this week and it was Vampire Bob who got the nod over Senahel Sydney by a fang. The pair both won A1 contests back-to-back with just five spots splitting the pair. 

Pennys Edge has won five of his 11 starts since arriving at the kennels of Robert Short. He has been behind Ballymac Seomra who won the award two weeks back on his last two starts, gaining revenge last week off a better start. 

At Harlow there was another smart sprint winner with Headford Gent producing the best run of the week. His D3 win was the seventh quickest time of the year over 238m, albeit on a track that was running on the quick side. 

Finally we have Valley and Only Live Once who showed his early pace to land a D2 contest. He has open race wins at Swindon and Valley this year and chased home Droopys Bookem and Kevins Rocket in a pair of Derby trial stakes back in April.