DUNDEE JUNE took advantage of a crowded affair to land the BGBF British Bred Scurry Final at Harlow on Wednesday.

Owned by West Moors Racing and trained by Dave Lewis, the June 2018 daughter of Kinloch Brae and Sevenofnine ran on strongly to collar longtime leader Ive Got Gears (Nathan Hunt) to take the £3,000 prize in this latest British-bred showpiece.

However, that does not quite tell the whole story as the field bunched up at the third bend as Whizzy Diamond (Spencer Mavrias) came with a powerful challenge. Forced to check up, crowding at this point saw Liz McNair’s King Bruno knocked over.

All the field were involved in crowding at this point, but it was left to Swindon’s Dundee June to win the GBGB Category Two event by one a quarter-lengths from Ive Got Gears in 26.88sec, with Whizzy Diamond crossing the line in third.

Winning trainer Dave Lewis said: “Obviously we’re over the moon with the result. We knew we were the outsider but being the only railer, and given the chance of crowding on the run-up and at the bend, I always thought we had a chance of landing a surprise.

“That trouble didn’t happen where I thought it would, and you could never have foreseen what was going to happen at the third bend. But she scooted through that and the rest is history. Yes we were fortunate, but that’s dog racing.

“I actually didn’t see her cross the winning line because Liz and Rab’s dog jumped the rail and was trying to rejoin the race, so it wasn’t until Rab congratulated me that I realised we’d actually won it. My glasses steamed up which didn’t help!

“She’s a home-bred bitch out of a home-bred brood (Sevenofnine) and I’d like to thank Bob Smith and Karen Doddington who whelp, rear and school my dogs. I’d also like to thank the British Greyhound Breeders Forum (BGBF) for putting these competitions on. I always try to support them.

“It’s funny. Errol Blyth interviewed me for RPGTV on Produce Stakes final night at Swindon and asked for a dog to follow – I told him Dundee June. Unfortunately I’m not sure the interview was ever aired – I never made the cut!”

Liz Mort, the BGBF chair, said: “Congratulations to Dave Lewis and West Moors Racing for their victory. It was an untidy race in many ways and our first thoughts were with King Bruno who was bowled over in a scrimmage at the third bend.

“I’m glad to say he recovered quickly and went across the middle of the track, hence why we didn’t see him finish. Thankfully I gather he’s none the worse for the experience.

“Congratulations to winning breeder Bob Smith who gets our breeder’s award.

“I thought Ive Got Gears ran a great race for Nathan Hunt. He was originally owned by Kevin Hutton and previously known as Signet Sparrow, being bred by Craig Dawson.

“Whizzy Diamond also kept on well to come third. He’s another one with a change

of name being originally King Diamond and therefore bred by Brendan Keogh and the KKS Syndicate – which incredibly gave them four finalists.

“Holding the Scurry at Harlow was new to us this year. In previous years Harlow has

hosted the British Bred Sprint and Henlow the British Bred Scurry, but with the move to Towcester of most of Henlow’s opens and competitions, their distances wouldn’t accommodate the Scurry, so we switched them round!

“We had the sprint at Towcester last month and the Scurry’s now at Harlow! The track’s 415m suits it well and we’ve seen some good racing throughout.

“I’d like to thank David Barclay and his team at Harlow for the effort they put into running this competition and also to SIS for their continued support which enables us to run

so many competitions for British-bred dogs throughout the year!”

Results: www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=366815&raceId=679644