FOREST GOLD heads into Saturday’s final of the BresBet Steel City Cup at Sheffield as not just the fastest semi-final victor but one of three Kevin Hutton-trained runners in the weekend’s £8,000-to-the-winner decider over 500m.

Racing in the first semi, the recent Birmingham Cup finalist was soon in charge off a fastest 4.27sec and never troubled thereafter as he raced away to win by almost five lengths from Stuart Buckland’s Cascade King in 28.66sec (+20).

The Hutton kennel then completed a double in the second semi-final as the Select Stakes champion also paced up well into the first bend and again raced away to score readily by two and a quarter lengths from the staying-on Balterio in 28.72sec (+20).

Angela Harrison’s Potent Touch and Headford Flash (Kevin Hutton) enjoyed a tremendous battle in the third semi-final before the former just edged out his nearest rival by a short-head in 28.90sec to grab a place in the decider along with Hutton’s third finalist.

Saturday promises to be Sheffield’s biggest night of the year on the track given the showpiece Category One competition final is supported by two other finals – for the BresBet British Bred Maiden and Brinkleys Poet At Stud Young Guns.

Andrew Mascarenhas, director of racing at Owlerton Stadium, said: “It really should be a fantastic night’s racing. We’ve got the three finals plus supporting opens and some real quality on show – especially in the main event.

“We are welcoming a new sponsor in BresBet, too. They are a local firm with strong links to the track, of course, and have already shown great support to us here at Owlerton Stadium.

“The Steel City Cup, backed for the first time this year by BresBet, has a tremendous history and is our main four-bend competition. This year’s final looks superb and the culmination of a brilliant competition.

“We’ve pretty much had an equal distribution of seeds throughout which has helped massively in ensuring we’ve a competitive final – and well done to Kevin Hutton for qualifying no less than three runners.

“There is British-bred interest here again on Saturday with the final of the BresBet-backed maiden competition which has seen connections of a number of British-breds no doubt using the event as preparation for the BGBF British Bred Derby we have here in December.

“We’ve got the final of the Brinkleys Poet at Stud Young Guns for pups, too. This is the second running of this competition which is sponsored by Nic and Amanda Jeal – loyal supporters of the sport and leading owners, well known for their Antigua-prefixed greyhounds.”

*Trap draws for Saturday’s finals:-

BresBet Steel City Cup Final: 1 Signet Ace, 2 Forest Gold, 3 Cascade King (m), 4 Potent Touch (m), 5 Balterio (w), 6 Headford Flash (w).

BresBet British Bred Maiden: 1 Harton Lara, 2 Fearsome Patriot (m), 3 Rookys Girl (m), 4 Magna Boss (m), 5 Acomb Hugo (m), 6 Trickys Rocket (w).

Brinkleys Poet at Stud Young Guns: 1 Tashade, 2 Quivers Maria, 3 Skywalker Stan, 4 March On Ted, 5 Carrowkeal Syd, 6 Droopys Biggy (m).