POND NATALYA capped off a memorable Bank Holiday Monday for Harry and Rita Williams as the home-bred finished fast to claim gold in the BGBF British Bred Oaks Final at Doncaster.

Having seen kennel flag-bearer Allowdale Bruno land a local success in the £1,000 Stadium Bookmakers Rose Bowl Final at Pelaw Grange, the Bishop Auckland-based husband and wife team headed south to Doncaster for the denouement of what became a four-runner final at the Yorkshire venue – but nevertheless produced a stirring finish.

Led early by the Liz McNair-trained Queen Cher and Jill Sutherst’s Witton Derecho, Pond Natalya had plenty of work to do off the second bend but showed plenty of class to close on her rivals into the bend, only to be forced to check her stride as she was squeezed up when looking to challenge at the third turn.

However, rallying well and railing up the home straight, Pond Natalya hit the front close home to take the £4,000 prize for British-bred greyhounds, winning by one and a quarter lengths in 29.83sec – thus continuing a long line of success for Harry Williams-bred racers stretching back to the 1980s.

Rita Williams, wife of the trainer, said: “What a day – busy, yes, but just brilliant. It started off at Pelaw Grange with Allowdale Bruno. He’s been a champion for us – he won last year’s Classic at Sunderland, then gave Velvet Juliet a real race in this year’s final. Then to come to Pelaw and win was fantastic.

“He came out well and chopped Two For Tea off at the bend – and that was crucial. He’s a superb bend runner, and duly won the race afterwards and showed once again what a great summer dog and a pleasure to train. I suppose we then had a spring in our step for the Doncaster trip to follow!

“Pond Natalya was favourite so I suppose was expected to win. I know it was only a four-runner final in the end, but I think that made it harder for us! We knew we might be squeezed up early between Cozzys Fozzy (Philip Simmonds) and Witton Derecho (Jill Sutherst) – and that’s exactly what happened.

“Thankfully after some initial bumping out of the traps, Natalya ran a great first bend and battled on to a great win. She’d run so well at Sunderland – over six bends and then with a brilliant 26.66sec back over 450m, so we knew she was well and still improving. Nevertheless it’s still fantastic to have won at Doncaster.

“I actually gave this bitch to Laura Langstaff-Wood when I whelped her down as I was annoyed Harry and Laura had arranged a secret mating and not told me at all – I didn’t known until three weeks before she was due to pup. I said to Laura to pick a bitch pup, then she could breed her own pups. She did – and chose a corker!

“Myself and Harry are so proud of Pond Natalya – she’s tough as an old boot.”

Liz Mort, chair of the British Greyhound Breeders Forum, said: “It really was a great evening’s racing at Doncaster – thanks to John Watson and his team there for putting on a really good show and, especially, for their support of British breeding and the BGBF.

“Of course, it was a shame only four runners went to traps for the British Bred Oaks Final, but that didn’t stop it being a very exciting race! And we must remember we had more entries this year – the heats were very much full and it was just unfortunate that season and a freak accident saw the two withdrawals.

“It was good to see Rita and Harry Williams take the trophy – their Pond Natalya is a great warrior! She’s just the sort of bitch you want – she won’t be beaten! Interestingly she was probably the most British-bred in the line-up, in that both sire and dam were also British-bred, being by Blue Artisan out of Pond Tanzanite.

“And their ‘British’ family goes back even further – some six generations in total back to their top-class brood Soda Pop. There’s been a huge number of wins from this family over the year and it’s a credit to the work Harry, Rita and their team have put in over the years. We are so fortunate so have people like those guys in our industry.

“It was also good to see that four of the other races on the night were won by British-breds, too, with wins for Liz and Rab McNair’s King Idol, Phillip Simmonds’ Bang On Annie and local trainer Sean Parker’s Barnside Millie and Russanda Buddy.