DROOPYS FIDGET maintained her unbeaten run through to the Steel City Puppy Derby Final with another impressive display in the semi-finals at Sheffield.

Lining up in the third semi-final of the £15,000-to-the-winner 500m event, a brand new competition at the Owlerton venue, the Nathan Hunt-trained August 2021 daughter of Out Of Range ASB and Droopys Natalia led off the second bend on her way to a three and three-quarter lengths success over Ballymac Archer (Stephen Naylor) in a standard-setting 28.90sec (+10).

The victory for the Monmore Puppy Derby semi-finalist, delighted trainer Hunt, who said: “She was faultless in the first round, but did stand up in the boxes in the semi-final which cost her at Monmore. She showed great determination at the bend and drove it superbly to go round in front and is very strong over this trip. However, she’ll need to reproduce one of her better breaks in the final as it’s a competitive race.

“The semi-finals showed you anything can happen in these puppy races. Hopefully it’s a clean-run race and it’s a great final for the spectators. Many thanks to Sheffield for their hospitality and the track for putting up the prize-money for what is a great addition to the open-race calendar.”

The Barrie Draper-trained Pear Drops kicked off the semi-finals with victory in the first semi as the local bitch scored a fine trap-to-line success.

The September 2021 daughter of Droopys Sydney and Easy On, who was opening her account at the sixth time of asking, shaded favourite Untold Zloty (Carol Weatherall) to lead on the run to the bend and was never headed thereafter as she crossed the line two lengths clear of Coppice Zaya (Kevin Hutton). The winning time was 28.96sec (+10).

Givemeabreak would match Droopys Fidget’s feat in the very next race by following up his heat victory in the second semi-final.

The Mark Wallis-trained June 2021 son of Bull Run Bolt and Tibet, a half-brother of former Towcester Puppy Derby champion Make Noise, led at the first bend on his way to a four and three-quarter length repeat success over Doncaster raider Wicky Hiker (Sean Parker) in 29.09sec (+10).

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=395713&raceId=927853

Trap draw for Saturday’s Steel City Puppy Derby Final: 1 Wicky Hiker, 2 Droopys Fidget, 3 Ballymac Archer, 4 Pear Drops, 5 Coppice Zaya, 6 Givemeabreak (w).