SPACE JET was in record-breaking form as Matt Dartnall’s outstanding bitch starred in the heats of the Coral TV Trophy at Hove on Saturday.

Last year’s St Leger champion also landed the 1st Containers Marathon at Towcester in October and went to traps for the second of three heats of the famous £15,000-to-the-winner event a warm order to grab gold. She duly did – and some!

The February 2019 daughter of Droopys Jet and Volcano won by no less than 17 and a half lengths as the three-year old powered clear after hitting the front off the sixth turn and raced way before setting new figures of 58.35sec for the 955m trip.

Droopys Senorita (Claude Gardiner) finished second here to make the line-up for this week’s decider, her second Category One final after the Golden Jacket.

Recent George Ing St Leger champion Blueberry Bullet (58.60sec) kicked off the event in fine style, herself setting a track record before Space Jet’s run, when making all over the eight bends in heat one – leading home a one-two for Mark Wallis here.

The August 2019 daughter of Confident Rankin and Cabra Twister was never headed and kept her form impressively before crossing the line almost 13 lengths clear of 2020 Greyhound of the Year Aayamza Royale, who stayed on best of the rest.

It means Aayamza Royale has a chance of winning a historic third TV Trophy title after wins at the Sussex track in 2020 and Monmore last year.

She will line up as one of three Wallis-trained runners in Saturday’s final after Antigua Lava edged out Bockos Brandy (Patrick Janssens) in a thrilling heat three, the latter coming away after checking at the sough before going down by half a length in 59.18sec.

Daniel Rankin, senior racing manager for Hove and Romford, oversaw the evening and all the other competitions supporting the TV Trophy and Brighton Belle, and said: “The performance of the night for myself was naturally Space Jet.

“The pace she showed from the sixth bend was something special and, with a better run early, you could see her getting close to 58 seconds. She looks the likely winner, but any sort of trouble in running then Blueberry Bullet could steal it from the front.

“It was good to see Aayamza Royale reach the final and it would be a great story to see her win a third title, but she has a lot to find to win. However, you can never rule her out.

“The Brighton Belle is always a good competition and this year’s renewal is no different.

We have a good chance of our first local winner since Banabane won for Seamus Cahill in 2016 with his own Pocket Lulu plus Whats Up Eva for Richard Rees.

“However, Antigua Cuddles will be a warm favourite with her favoured trap one draw but will need to trap smartly as there’s plenty of early pace in the race.

“The Seasons Scaffolding Puppy Cup, which is kindly sponsored by Steve Eason, has only been run for twice before and produced two good finals and this year’s looks no different with six quality greyhounds all reaching the final.

“Deelish Frankie will be favourite to win it but will face a tough challenge to add to his Monmore Puppy Derby win and, in my opinion, his main challengers will be Milton Pepe and Burkos Bobby.

“Saturday was a good night’s racing with the majority of the fancied runners reaching their respective finals which should make for another fantastic night’s racing this weekend. We have six finals in total and seven supporting open races – plus we induct former Hove racing manager Jim Layton into our Hall Of Fame.”

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=383649&raceId=828716