Blake Produces The Goods For Punters Again

Punters had a good night again at Shelbourne Park as six of the twelve races on the Derby Semi finals card.

Laughil Blake went into his semi-final as the outright favourite to win the 2014 Boylesports Irish Greyhound Derny and he was also a short priced favourite at 4/5 to win his semi final, which he duly did.

Blake has been ever popular among punters throughout the Derby with his consistent stand out performances and yet again, he treated punters to another breath taking performance, much to the despair of our traders after he proved popular in the shops all week.

Blake was a significant loser for us as we witnessed the drift of Tyrur Sugar Ray all week which saw him go off at a big 3/1.

It was 5/1 bar the top two in the betting and favourite backers knew their fate in the early strides after Blake took a sensational start clocking the fastest split in this year’s Derby to date when posting a 4.31 split.

Blake is now odds-on at 4/5 to win the final with the sponsors, Boylesports, while Emers Superstar, who ran his best race of the Derby to date to chase home Blake, is the outsider of the six finalists at 14/1 and the old warrior, Tyrur Sugar Ray, can be backed at 11/2.

At this point, from a bookmakers point of view, we will be cheering on Sugar Ray and Emers because currently they are both winners. However, the same cannot be said for Laughil Blake who over he past few weeks has gone from a winner in the book to our second biggest loser.

The second Semi saw a bit of an upset as the second string of Liam Dowling according to the betting, Vulturi went on to score at 5/1 over Borneo and Ballymac Vic. Despite being our biggest loser in the outright book, Vulturi was actually a good result for us as we saw support for Ballymac Vic and Borneo in the week building upto Saturday night.

Vulturi still remains the biggest loser in the outright book for us after being heavily backed ante-post and at decent prices throughout the early rounds. Vulturi has broken much better over the past few weeks and if this powerful finisher can turn close off the second bend, at 6/1 to win Saturday night’s final, he could still prove over priced.

In his semi-final however, Vulturi was friendless as we saw the majority of the money coming in for the other two qualifiers, Borneo finished runner-up and after being available at 7/1 mid week, on Saturday night due to the support he was cut two points to 5/1 at the off and he is available at 12/1 for the final.

Ballymac Vic, who also made it through to the final, went off the 6/4 favourite for the semi-final after two impressive heat wins back to back but after early trouble punters knew they had done their dough! Vic however is still a leading fancy for many in the final and I’m sure the11/2 currently available may not last long.

Also on Saturday night was the semi-finals of the Ger McKenna and Seamus Graham memorial plate, which also provided good results for the punters. The opening semi went the way of Bleniem Cracker who got up in the final stride to catch the 6/4 jolly Laughil Bolt.

This was bad for favourite backers but, to be fair, Cracker was also well backed and he returned the second favourite behind Bolt. It was Saint Anthony who stayed on the best to progress to the final. For the final, both Cracker and Bolt are available at 10/3 to lift the plate on Saturday with Anthony being available at 14/1.

One of the main bankers on the night for many came in the second semi as Paradise Silva went for redemption after an unfortunate loss the week prior and he gained it in swift fashion. He was backed into 4/6 at the off and in the shops all week he was the best backed dog in the entire plate, he is now just 13/8 to win the final from trap two.

The other two qualifiers were Focus On Carlow and Jackal Frampton, despite the money for Silva there was a late nibble at Jackal who went off at 2/1 and Carlow ended up going off at 7/1. With regards to the final Jackal can be backed at 7/2 with Focus On Carlow available at 12/1.