ROMFORD racing manager Mark Arkell has thanked trainers for their cooperation as the countdown to tomorrow’s Coral Essex Vase Final stepped up a gear following the rearranged semi-finals of the track’s first Category One event of 2o24.

A frozen track curtailed last Friday’s card after just seven races, which meant three semi-finals of the Coral Essex Vase had to be rearranged for earlier this week and the planned heats of a 750m competition became a one-off which will be staged as part of a gala multi-final card on Friday.

The Coral Essex Vase Final and Coral Silver Maiden Final, a GBGB Category Two event worth £5,000 to the winner, will be the feature events on the card at the Essex track which will also include a standard final, a kennel sweepstakes final, the marathon one-off and heats of a maiden competition over 400m.

“This is a first major racenight for us in the new Premier Greyhound Racing era and we’ve got an excellent card to look forward to – and better weather!” he said. “We had to hold over the Essex Vase semis from last week, but all the trainers involved understood and returned here on Monday.

“It was quite unusual to have the semi-finals of a Category One comp as part of our Monday morning meeting but they produced some cracking contests and I’ve absolutely no doubt Friday’s final will be equally as exciting – and probably very close!

“The Essex Vase is the oldest competition here at Romford and, as students of the game will know, the roll of honour includes dogs like Dolores Rocket, Ballyregan Bob and Adageo Bob and, of course, a Greyhound of the Year in Coolavanny Aunty won the 2022 running here and was runner-up to Aayamza Magic last year.

“So whoever wins adds their name to a great list and, once again it’s great to have plenty of local interest with Katie O’Flaherty, David Mullins and Paul Burr all with finalists.”

Aayamza Sydney heads into Friday’s final unbeaten in the event after repeating his heat success in the first semi-final on Monday as the John Mullins-trained runner paced up to lead into the first bend (13.44sec split) and was always dominating thereafter, winning by seven and a quarter lengths from Singalong Stacey (Katie O’Flaherty) in 35.00sec (-30).

Liz McNair will have two chances in the final after her Bet365 Challenge Cup winner at Oxford, Havana Top Note, won the second semi-final. He was always in command after a fast break and 13.45sec split before crossing the line four and a half lengths clear of kennelmate Queen Georgia in 35.14sec (-30) for a McNair-trained one-two.

The third semi-final proved the tightest of the three with the Paul Burr-trained Roxys Bullet racing into an early advantage before holding the dual challenge of Romeo Hotshot (David Mullins) and Minnie Bullet (Mark Wallis) by half a length and the same for a 35.74sec (-30) success – the first two making the £10,000 final on Friday.

Form and trap draw for Friday’s final: https://assets.cj1.in/imminent-otter/production/assets/results/Romford/form-guides/FRIDAY-PROOF_2024-01-22-152143.pdf