RUSSANDA SILVER opened her open-race account at the best possible moment when landing a 33-1 shock victory in the final of the BGBF British Bred Oaks Final at Doncaster on Monday.

Trained by Sean Parker for his mother Elaine – and bred by the Parkers at their Goole base in east Yorkshire – the June 2018 daughter of Aero Majestic and Russanda Roslea finished fast after crowding up front to catch another big-priced runner in Tony Tuffin’s Fabulous Amalfi (20-1) by three-quarters of a length in 30.07sec for the 483m trip. Another Parker-trained runner, Barnside Millie stayed on well to finish a close-up third.

Victory for the experienced Russanda Silver, who made her debut in B6 in December 2019 before moving up the grades, was a first open-race success for the three-year-old who came into the event fresh after a short enforced break having notched up back-to-back wins in B2 grade at Doncaster.

“It was certainly the perfect time to notch her first open-race victory!” said Liz Mort, chair of the British Greyhound Breeders Forum after success in the GBGB Category Two competition.

“I always love the Oaks – good bitches are great to watch – and from the BGBF’s point of view we hope, of course, that we’re looking at the next generation of broods!

“And what a fantastic final it was to this year’s British Bred Oaks. A bit of trouble at the first bend totally upset the predicted result and Russanda Silver made a storming charge up the inside to snatch victory on the line.

“Congratulations to connections of all the finalists – all six are really good bitches and deserved to be in what was a very exciting race.

“It was lovely that Silver’s breeder and owner Elaine Parker, who has bred so many good ‘Russanda’ dogs over the years, was there to collect the trophy. And many thanks are due to Doncaster for hosting the competition – it was well run as always and well supported.

“After a difficult 18 months for everyone, things do seem to be looking up on the breeding side. With problems due to Brexit or Covid of getting bitches to Ireland, we now have  many good stud dogs standing in the UK which has made things easier.

“Mating numbers are also good at the moment. They took a dip last year – a lot of bitches also seem to have missed – but they are back up again now and it’s noticeable a lot more breeders are using dogs here, whereas in previous years they’d have gone to Ireland.

“Next on the BGBF agenda is, of course, the Produce Stakes at Swindon and we are looking forward to seeing which British-breds turn out to be the stars of the 2019 crop!”

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=376707&raceId=768175