BROOKSIDE RICHIE continued his domination of the Coral Romford Puppy Cup on Friday as the David Mullins-trained youngster again raced to a fastest-of-the-night success over 400m at the Essex venue.

Lining up in the third and final semi-final of the famous competition, won last year by kennelmate Tenpin, the October 2019 son of Droopys Sydney and Droopys Greatest raced to a 3.78sec split and, edging fast-starting Newinn Tic Tok (3.77sec sectional) at the bend, took the shorter route round on the rails to soon be clear.

Keeping up the gallop, Mullins’ star crossed the line six and a half lengths clear of Newinn Tic Tok (Patrick Browne) on his way to clocking 23.67sec (+10). A winner now of eight of his 11 starts, he is a hot favourite for Friday’s £10,000 final.

Central Park trainer Mark Fenwick sent out Droopys Supremo to strike in the second semi as a slick exit set up victory for the October 2019 son of Droopys Sydney and Droopys Dance, another product of the Droopys Stud.

Posting a 3.78sec split, he was always in command, although locally trained Bit View Rocket (Maxine Locke) stayed on really well after crowding at the first and second bends to close to within a neck at the line. The winning time was 24.16sec (+10).

Earlier, Goldies Jennings regained the winning thread in the first semi-final when making the most of his favoured inside draw to lead early, matching Brookside Richie’s 3.78sec split, before winning by three lengths from Itsur Best Mate (Paul Young) in 23.96sec (+10).

Patrick Janssens trains the October 2019 son of Loughteen Blanco and Droopys Berry for Andy Pelley and the owner was delighted with the performance of the youngster who was winning for the fifth time in ten starts.

He said: “Once again I have to say thanks for Patrick, Cheryl, Ria and the team for their expert handling of all the dogs.

“Jennings has really taken a liking to Romford, which is great because he was bought with this event in mind following a strong recommendation from Keith Doherty in Ireland. He  arrived at the kennels in May and settled in well. His early trials showed Keith’s faith in him was absolutely justified and I was always hopeful he’d go well in the competition.

“To have a finalist in this competition is fantastic and I’m so grateful to ‘Team Janssens’, including Ron Mills of course, for getting him there.

“It’s interesting listening to the various commentators and experts share their opinions on the dog – calling him average and limited, has to lead to win and draw-dependent seem to be the most popular – has to lead to win is probably the most laughable. He hasn’t led at the split in any of his five victories, but won those races.

“He and Brookside Richie are the only dogs to dip under the 24-second barrier in the competition so far as well. For my part I’m proud to own him. He’s named after a great hero of both mine and my dad’s in Pat Jennings.

“He’s unquestionably desperate for the rails but with a burst of early is okay out of other traps if he can clear those inside him and make it across. Fortunately, he was lucky enough to draw trap one in the final, so we can have no complaints there.

“All six finalists are good dogs and Richie is the star of the competition. We’ll need all the luck in running to beat him, but stranger things have happened and I’ll look forward to the final all week and we’ll see what happens.”

Having a runner in the Coral Romford Puppy Cup Final caps a good month for owner Pelley, part-owner of BresBet East Anglian Derby finalist Aussie Captain.

He said: “We had a great night with our syndicate at Yarmouth on Wednesday night and I’d like to thank everyone at the track for looking after us owners so well – they were brilliant. It wasn’t our night on the track unfortunately, we needed a ping-break like we got in the semis to get across to the rail, but we didn’t get that and our race was effectively over at the first bend.

“Huge congratulations to Nic and Amanda Jeal and Mark Wallis and Imperial Kennels. We lost to a wonderful dog in Antigua Storm who ran really well on the night and thoroughly deserved his victory. We’re really hopeful for the future, though, with the Captain.“He’s not three yet and he’s running really well. He gave us a lot of fun through the Derby and then the EA Derby and we’re hoping for success with him in the coming months.”

Trap draw and form for Friday’s Coral Romford Puppy Cup Final: https://assets.cj1.in/imminent-otter/production/assets/results/Romford/form-guides/19-FRIDAY-PROOF.pdf