Towcester sale produces record tally with near £211K aggregate

TOWCESTER's Greyhound Trader sale on Monday 31st March lived up to expectations by producing record aggregate turnover of £210,950.

In all, 44 of the 46 (96%) of the greyhounds offered were sold on the day including eight for whom off the bench deals were concluded after they initially failed to make reserves.

Before the action on the track, nearly 100 guests were invited into the Towcester restaurant to enjoy a buffet style breakfast put on by Greyhound Trader and the catering team at Towcester.

It was an enjoyable social time too, a lot of the gossip trying to predict which greyhound would produce the fastest time of the day.

That honour went to ex-Pat Buckley-trained Mystical Jet with a 28.78sec (normal) clocking soon after Toolmaker Quick had recorded 28.85sec and both would feature as star lots along with Dutchie (29.00sec), the first Greyhound Trader sales offering in its four-year history who had previously broken 28.00sec for 525 yards in Ireland. 

Heading into the auction ring with a room full of some of the UK's most prominent greyhound owners, the anticipation was high and trade was expected to be strong off the back of the impressive trial results.

And the fireworks went off when Toolmaker Quick entered the room as lot 9. He sold for £17,500 online to the Robin Hood Racing Syndicate and will be trained by Jason Gray. 

Not long afterwards, lot 13 Mystical Jet propted a bidding war between 3 parties, eventually running out as winners at £25,500 - highest of day by some margin - were Terry Nicholls (Teejays) and Lee Harris (Chelms) who have given the dog to Paul Young to train. 

Lot 25 Dutchie was again another popular greyhound in the ring. Having produced a powerful looking performance on the day, he was sold to BetGoodwin MD Julian Head for £19,500. Set to be renamed Betgoodwin Ed, he will go into training with Diane Henry. 

Results of other impressive trialists were Good Stevie (£13,250), Phoenix Charlie (£11,250), Radical Scoby (£10,250) and Recovery (£7,500) while Jacktavern Racer was unfortunately one of just two lots who by the end of the day went unsold.

Another sale to mention was Droopys Scratch who was involved with the penultimate trial of the day along with her little comrade Droopys Smoothie.

Both November 2023 pps, Droopys Smoothie won the trial by a neck in 29.45sec and subsequently sold for £9,000.

However it was her sister Droopys Scratch who was most popular in the room with many a keen eye noticing her greenness and strong-running style. 

The likes of Kevin Hutton, Kim Billingham-Hine and Peter Harnden were all involved in the auction, but it is Maxine Locke with whom the bitch now resides after a winning bid of £13,400 by the JR Racing Syndicate.