WE continue the countdown to greyhound racing’s night of the year – the GBGB Greyhound of the Year Awards at the Royal Lancaster London, on Sunday, January 26 – by looking at those stars of the track who have made the list of nominations for the various award categories.

We concentrate now on the GBGB Bitch of the Year 2019 nominations – Bull Run Byte, Droopys Live and Velvet Juliet – and talk to the trainers of each of the runners about how the year panned out for their charges, and their chances of taking the award.

Last year’s Bitch of the Year was Donation, trained by Heather Dimmock for owners The Jabber Crew.

BULL RUN BYTE

wbk b Romeo Recruit – Tullowmac Java, Nov 2016

Trainer: Kevin Hutton, Monmore

Owner: Gilbert Anderson

Claims to fame: Landed her trainer back-to-back wins in The English Oaks at Swindon in December – making all in the £15,000 decider. Also plundered wins during the year at Central Park and Poole where she finished fourth in the Golden Crest to King Elvis.

Trainer says: “Byte ran brilliantly at Swindon and came to form at the right time. They were tough conditions in December, but she handled them well and it was great to win our third Oaks after Droopys Daneel (2013) and Ravenswood Flo (2018). She was brilliant throughout 2019 with 11 wins from 21 races and was quite unlucky in the Poole final  having reached the decider unbeaten – she posted a top-class 26.66sec in the heats. She’s resting just now but will have the Golden Crest at Poole as one of her early targets.”

DROOPYS LIVE

bk b Tullymurry Act – Live Queen, May 2015

Trainer: Angela Harrison, Newcastle

Owners: John Hardman, JD Maragh, Paul Maragh & Emma Wright

Claims to fame: The winningmost open-racer in 2019, Droopys Live enjoyed a superb year as she entered senior status with victory in the SIS Yorkshire St Leger at Doncaster the highlight of a string of excellent performances.

Trainer says: “She’s been a top-class bitch for a few seasons now and a real credit to us and her owners. Winning at Doncaster was brilliant – she was fantastic on the night – and fully deserved that title. She’s won over 40 open races now and won 20 alone in 2019 – that’s some feat. She’s known as ‘Birdy’ at the kennels and will be kept in training until she next breaks in season – and then she’ll head to the breeding paddocks. Birdy owes us nothing and helped us reach our target of a top-six finish in the Trainer of the Year race.”

VELVET JULIET

bk b Head Bound – Velvet All Jam, April 2017

Trainer: Angela Harrison, Newcastle

Owners: The Conlon Family

Claims to fame: Won the Ted Lloyd Classic at Sunderland in a memorable final as she caught defending champion Allowdale Bruno. Also finished second in the Monmore Gold Cup behind Seaglass Tiger before reaching the Oaks semis.

Trainer says: “Juliet is a top-class bitch and showed that at Sunderland. She stays well but has so much speed – and needed that to win over 450m – remember she was also one spot outside the track record at Sunderland in the semis. Given her stamina, she has plenty of options, so while she was unlucky not to reach the Oaks final, we took her Newcastle and she won over 640m – the Yorkshire St Leger and Sunderland Grand Prix therefore could be targets in 2020.”

The winners will be presented with their awards at the GBGB Awards at the Royal Lancaster London, on Sunday, January 26.

*For further details and ticket information contact the GBGB on 020 7822 0902 or email awards@gbgb.org.uk.