WHATS UP EVA completed an unbeaten run through the Coral Brighton Belle at Hove on Saturday and landed a popular local victory in the process.

Trained by Richard Rees for owners Diane and Alf Benson and Jeff Radford, the November 2019 daughter of Laughil Blake and Snow Acorn was once again quickly into stride and put herself into a challenging position right from the start, riding a bump at the turn before going clear to strike gold in the a GBGB Category Two event.

Always in command thereafter, the Hove bitch was on her way to adding her name to a famous roll of honour, winning the £5,000-to-the-winner competition by one and three-quarter lengths in 30.32sec for the 515m trip from runner-up and favourite Antigua Cuddles (Mark Wallis). Slippy Hazel (Michelle Brown) finished third.

The victory extended Whats Up Eva’s record to nine wins from 17 starts and delighted connections.

Charlie Rees, son and assistant of the winning trainer, said: “She’s great from the boxes and, once in front, was always to take some pegging back.

“She’s at the top of her game just now and still improving – and I always felt she’d handle the draw at the weekend. She’s probably better just off the rail.

“She’s still pretty lightly raced and I think dad (Richard Rees) is thinking about the Derby for her. The track and trip suits her at Towcester – she won there in January – so that’ll be the likely plan.

“Eva’s done us all proud and has a great record already, moving up the grades at Hove as she learned the game, then into open class. Ideally she’s an out-and-gone with great early pace, but she’s also got great middle speed too.

“She’s definitely a bitch-in-form!”

Daniel Rankin, senior racing manager for Hove and Romford, said: “The Brighton Belle was a great final for the locals with Whats Up Eva winning for Richard Rees who has had a great record this year with all his runners.

“Richard is now beginning to seeing the benefit of moving kennels and should be one to watch out for on the open-race scene for the remainder of the year as he has some quality greyhounds in his kennel.

“Whats Up Eva was superb throughout the Brighton Belle and her performance was definitely one of the highlights of a top-class night of open-race action here on Saturday. It was a gala card packed-full of great performances.”

Result: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=383842&raceId=830018