Punters 1 BoyleSports 0 In Round 1 Of Derby

So that’s round one done and dusted, and I can safely say from a bookmaker’s point of view, Thursday night’s session was one of the worst results ever!

It was a little bit like Cheltenham with all the accumulators, except unlike Annie Power, Farloe Blitz finished off the job in style! So it’s one nil to the punters after round one.

Thursday morning there was a bit of an anti-climax here in the BoyleSports headquarters when we received the phone call from Declen Carey telling us that Laughil Blake had been withdrawn due to the cough. Credit where credit is due though to John Boyle, he was very quick off the mark to say he would refund all the customers who backed Blake ante post as a good will gesture!

Thursday night got off to a great start for favourite backers as Larry Dunne’s Slippery Fred hit the front early to land the spoils easily in 29.89. Larry later got a double on the cards when Slippery Snowy landed heat five in terrific fashion in a slick 29.71.

Trainer Graham Holland had a great opening round seeing twelve of his original fifteen entries safely go through to round two. He won no less than five heats. Sidarian Vega got the ball rolling for him on Thursday night (29.83) followed by Rural Hawaii (29.65) who really caught my eye.

It was then on to Saturday night for the Holland bandwagon with ten runners! Amazing Dude was the first to hit the back of the net in heat seventeen (29.77), followed by a 1-2-3 in heat eighteen when Calzaghe Clampett caused an upset by beating Oaks Queen Ballydoyle Honey by two lengths in 29.62. I thought that Honey was awesome in defeat the amount of running she had to do was crazy to get as near as she did.

Riverside Pat finished the round off in style for team Holland flashing away and landing the blow in 29.49. Stick the runner up here in your notebook, Borna Sounds, he ran a cracker in defeat and is not two years old until October. Ballymac Matt’s performance in heat nine would really make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up; he flew from traps and drew further and further clear with every stride to record the fastest time of the round 29.43. This son of Tyrur Big Mike loves Shelbourne and has a lovely pitch in trap one in heat sixteen on Saturday night, he is now our outright favourite at 8/1.

Farloe Blitz was another runner to impress on Thursday night, showing his usual burst of early speed he opened up a huge gap down the far side and galloped strong to the line stopping the clock in 29.60. We have clipped him into 10/1 for Derby glory and there aren’t too many dogs around that could lead this fellow to the third bend with a level break.

Laughil Duke caused a real stir in the ante-post market after his performance in heat twenty. He showed a bit more early then I thought he had when taking up the running off the second bend and galloping clear of a decent field winning by four and a half lengths in 29.45. He is now 12/1 to win the Derby for Paul and Mary Jennings and trainer Pat Guilfoyle. This team won the Derby Plate with his older half-brother Laughil Bolt last year.

From a personal view I was delighted with the run of Barefoot Artist in heat twenty-two (29.65). He is an out and out railer and for him to win from trap five was great; it was a tough heat but he did it in style. He’s improving all the time and is another one with a good draw in round two.

We were thrilled with turnover on round one and are ready to do it all again this weekend.

If I was asked to put my head on the line I would have to pick Rural Hawaii as my potential winner, giving the fact that he will nearly always get his draw on the outside is a major plus.

We hope to see you all in HQ this Thursday and Saturday night. If you can’t make it there and are into your social medi,a give my colleague a follow on Twitter @Boylesportsdamo for all draws, news and results.

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