ROMEO MAGICO is the automatic choice for RPGTV/GWA Greyhound of the Month for June after his fantastic success in the Star Sports & TRC English Greyhound Derby Final at Towcester last month.

Trained by Graham Holland for owner and breeder Dave Firmager, the August 2019 son of Magical Bale and Fabulous Artist led home Kildare for a famous Irish-trained one-two in the £175,000-to-the-winner Classic – landing a popular British-bred success in the process.

Clive Lawrence, executive producer at award sponsors RPGTV, said: “The Greyhound Writers’ Association automatically hand the monthly award to the Derby champion which is absolutely right – so well done the Hollands and the Firmagers.

“It was a superb Derby and we here at RPGTV were extremely proud to show every race and every round.

“It was definitely our busiest Derby. We had more previews, more head-ons, more minutes of outside broadcast coverage on semi-final and finals night, and more social media coverage and interaction – and hopefully that all went down well with our viewers.”

Liz Mort, chair of the British Greyhound Breeders Forum (BGBF), said success for Romeo Magico – both in the Derby and in terms of the monthly award – was a great reason to celebrate British breeding.

“What a fantastic result, both for British breeding and for David and Nicola Firmager,” she said. “The Firmagers have put a lot of thought and time into their breeding plans for something like 35 years. They deserve this success.

“Magico’s dam line traces directly back to their Fast March, who herself ran in the 2002 Derby, while it’s also great to see the relatively young Magical Bale produce such quality, especially as he was owned and trained for much of his career here in the UK.

“Magical Bale is rightly very much in demand now, and Magico’s triumph just underlines how good a sire he is.

“Overall it was a very good Derby for British-breds. We had two in the semi-finals with Romeo Magico and Signet Goofy and there’s no question British breeding is progressing enough to think we might have even more semi-finalists next year!

“But it’s not just the numbers of British-breds which is going up, but it’s the quality, too, and with sires such as Magical Bale being used the outlook is very positive.”