LIZ MCNAIR heads into Thursday’s semi-finals of the 77th British Bred Produce Stakes 2023 at Swindon with a strong hand after dominating the second-round action at the Blunsdon venue last week.

Liz and her husband Rab won four of the six heats, three of them with members of the same litter, and they have seven runners through to Thursdays three semi-finals of the famous British-bred event they have won three times for owners the KSS Syndicate with King Elvis (2017), King Sheeran (2019) and Queen Jessiej (2020).

And it was a daughter of the latter, Queen Georgia, who kicked off the second round for the McNairs in the best possible style as the December 2021 daughter of Droopys Sydney and Queen Jessiej paced up well to lead into the bend in heat one on her way to landing the spoils, scoring from Savana Top Cat (Chris Hamblin) in 28.06sec (normal).

That success was later followed by wins for three kennelmates in heats four, five and six, as the unbeaten King Capaldi made all in 27.92sec before Queen Shakira (27.91) went marginally quicker in the very next heat and then King Memphis closed out the second round when leading off the second bend for a 27.82sec win for the 476m trip.

All three are littermates from a December 2021 batch by Droopys Sydney out of former kennel favourite Queen Beyonce, with King Memphis posting the fastest time of the round as he led home Queen Joni and King Combs for a McNair one-two-three.

The other Produce Stakes second round heats went to Graham Holland’s Romeo Hanzo (Romeo Recruit-Fabulous Mila, April 2021) who justified long odds-on favouritism to score from Keefill George (Phil Milner) in heat two in 27.99sec, with Kevin Ferguson’s Acomb Felix (Hiya Butt-Acomb Ruby, March 2021) making all in heat three in 28.01sec.

Liz Mort, chair of the British Greyhound Breeders Forum (BGBF), congratulated all the winners and semi-final qualifiers – but had special words for the achievement of Liz and Rab McNair given their four wins from six second-round heats.

Mort said: “Watching the Produce Stakes this year reminds me of being at the GBGB Awards last year – we’re talking May 2022 – when I remember going over to Brendan Keogh’s table to say hello and have a chat. I said how sorry I was that they’d had a something of a blank year with their British-breds in 2021.

“A lot of his bitches had missed the year before and, by comparison to previous years, Brendan and the team had had very few home-bred youngsters on the track. Yes, he agreed, but then immediately smiled, took out his phone and told me enthusiastically – “but we’ve got some absolutely cracking pups in the paddocks now!

“He showed me videos of some remarkably good-looking pups and I made a mental note to look out for them the next year – and how right he was! We’ve seen dogs from four of his 2021 litters entered – two of them sired by Droopys Sydney, one by his home-bred King Sheeran, and one by Hiya Butt – and all four litters are represented in the semi-finals.

“As usual in the Produce, most of our best-known breeders are represented. David Firmager has three from different litters in the semi-finals, all by different sires – Dorotas Wildcat, his home-bred Romeo Recruit and Magical Sprite.

“Another breeder who always deserves a mention is Kevin Ferguson. He has three through from the same litter, which is the result of a repeat mating of his home-bred Acomb Ruby to Hiya Butt. Trevor Coote has Mukura Shadow and Tommys Slippers through, both from his Broadstrand Bono-Ballycian Bella litter.

“The sires stats are interesting. The semi-finalists comprise six by Droopys Sydney (whose grandsire on his dam’s sire was Westmead Hawk), four by Hiya Butt, two by Broadstrand Bono, then one each by Magical Bale, Dorotas Wildcat, King Sheeran, Romeo Recruit, Skywalker Logan and Magical Sprite.

“The semi-finals this week are going to be exciting. Six will go through but at this stage it’s by no means easy to work out which six! But however it works out we’re set for a great final, a really exciting race between six of the best British-breds we’ve seen for a while. Thanks as always to Swindon for putting on this great competition again.”