Advantage Johnny finished second in his last race at Oxford after coming from well off the pace to just fail in getting his nose in front before the line, Johnny will now go to Hall Green this Sunday for the Mothers Day meeting over the standard 480M trip. We are quite pleased with his last couple of runs and it shows that there is still life in the old dog yet, who knows he might even go on to surprise us and everybody else for that matter over the coming Summer months.
 
Topstar Honcho is likely to be on the comeback trail in the next 10-14 days after his lay off with injury and he will hopefully be back in racing action towards the end of this month. If we can keep him sound we are hopeful of a good Summer campaign with the Sunderland and Monmore competitions very much on his agenda.
 
Both our pups Big Chief and Storming Hawk are well and progressing nicely, but as with all pups patience is the order of the day and we are certainly in no rush with either of them.

Advantage Johnny gave away 3 or 4 lengths out of the boxes on Tuesday night in the 7.40pm race that was shown live on Sky Sports and still ran a huge race to be second to Arc finalist Gilbeyhall Jake.
I think it is fair to say that with a better exit he would have either won or gone very close, but he did'nt and that as they say is dog racing. Johnny certainly seems to be coming to himself a little just of late and he will probably head to Oxford this coming Thursday for the open races on the Trafalgar Puppy Cup card before a possible return to Wimbledon on Juvenile night early in March.






Big Chief was a little unlucky in his recent trial on Tuesday but heads back to Monmore again this coming Tuesday for his final qualifying trial over the 480M trip. Once he has qualified we will take a look at what races he is eligable for and enter him up accordingly, but he should be having his first competetive start before the end of the month for his syndicate members who I know are all very excited.

Some of Big Chief's litter mates are doing very well, from only 3 runs there has been a win and two second place finishes. In particular Rock it Diva has really impressed winning comfortably in A5 at Nottingham at the first time of asking and then finishing second after being upgraded two grades to A3 on her second start for Paul Sallis and his team.

There is still a litter brother in Ireland who is doing very well and has impressed in his schooling trials, but as a whole the litter look very promising and we wish all the pups, their owners and trainers all the very best for this coming year.

Topstar Honcho is still on the easy list, whilst Storming Hawk is settling in nicely in Ireland and I will keep you all posted on his progress once he starts his schooling.

We are now 12 months on since Category 1 Greyhounds was launched and to date our statistics are as follows.

We have had our dogs compete in a total of 42 races of which we have had 7 wins, 8 seconds and 6 third placed finishes which means that our dogs on average have finished in the first 3 of their races 50% of the time.

Our membership is continually growing nationwide and our race dogs and pups look as though they could go on to do all our syndicate members proud this coming year.

We will be making another appearance live on Sky on Tuesday evening in the first live race at 7.40pm courtesy of Advantage Johnny and we are hopeful he will put in a good performance at what could be attractive odds.

Whilst all our syndicates are currently full, we are actively looking to secure a deal for a top class 6 bend staying dog and anyone one who might be interested in joining this exciting new syndicate is more than welcome to contact us via phone or e-mail - admin@category1greyhounds.com to register their interest so as to avoid disappointment once the syndicate places become available as we do have a number of current members already interested in taking a share once this new syndicate is formed.

Advantage Johnny returns to the scene of his latest win tonight when puts on the striped jacket in a very warm (Division 1) heat of the standard 480M at Monmore Green.
He is the only wide runner in the race and is well in himself but it could be a very tall order if the likes of Farloe Reason return to anything like their best for Charlie Lister.

Tuesday sees Johnny head off to Wimbledon for the live Sky meeting where he runs in the first live race the 7.40pm. This as you would expect is again a very good race and out of Trap 5 will take a lot of winning, but as they say 'You've got to be in it, to win it'.

Big Chief trailed at Monmore on Tuesday and put in a very pleasing effort over the sprint distance of 264M. He will now go back to Monmore on Tuesday for another sprint but this time it will be in company, again over the sprint distance.

Topstar Honcho is recovering from his recent injury and will be off for some time yet but Lance reports the dog to be in really good order otherwise and its just a case of letting time play its part now in the healing process.

Advantage Johnny got back to winning ways at Monmore last Saturday over the standard 480M trip. Both myself and Lance were particularly pleased with his performance, given the atrocious weather we had been having prior to the last couple of weeks and the lack of opportunity we have had to do a great deal with him or any of the dogs. We are hopeful that run and win will have brought him on enough to see some further improvement the next time he runs.

Advantage Martti also visited the winners enclosure for us at Monmore this weekend winning in graded company. Whilst it was'nt really expected Martti will hopefully continue to improve now that he has his first win at Monmore under his belt, a big thanks must also go to both Kirstie and Dave for all their hard work with Martti.

Its all very exiting for members of another of our syndicates as Big Chief will trial at Monmore on Tuesday in what will be his very first appearance for his syndicate members.

Storming Hawk goes over to Ireland later this coming week to join Marie Baker prior to being schooled and we should know in the next couple of months how he is shaping up..

On a sad note Topstar Honcho will be off for around 2 months due to an injury that we were fortunate enough to find before he ran again. Simon Gower after examining Star found the injury and given some time he will hopefully make a full recovery.

Things are hopefully going to start to get going again now the weather is starting to improve. Both Topstar Honcho and Advantage Johnny exited the Betfair Arc at the first hurdle down at Swindon on Tuesday, but in all fairness so did a lot of other good dogs. The weather has without doubt interrupted or held up the preparation of most dogs and training establishments the length and breadth of the country over the last 6 weeks and it would seem a number of dogs really just need to get a run or two under their belt before they will they will be back to something like their best.

Star and Johnny both head for Monmore on Saturday evening now and hopefully the weather won't be a problem and we can get another run in to them both before making any further plans about what targets we may look at in the near future.

We will also be looking to get a trial into Big Chief in the next week, but again like so many others his schedule has just been on hold until the weather started to improve. It is likely he will visit Monmore for a sprint trial and given the rest he has had he will definately need the run.

Storming Hawk is fine but will be joining Marie Baker in Ireland sooner than planned to settle in prior to being schooled due to the difficult conditions the weather has created in Scotland where he is being reared.