King Memphis followed up his track record-breaking performance in the semi-finals with another impressive victory in Sunday’s RPGTV £10,000 English Puppy Derby at Towcester.

 

Remarkably, the brilliant December 2021 son of Droopys Sydney and Queen Beyonce also led home a littermates one-two-three with his brothers King Capaldi and King Combs crossing the line in the places ahead of kennelmate Queen Dusty in fourth.

And really from the get-go, a clean sweep for Liz and Rab McNair and the owning KSS Syndicate’s home-breds looked on the cards with King Capaldi smartly into stride and leading into the turn ahead of eventual winner King Memphis. Queen Dusty was also prominent outside.

King Capaldi stretched his field out down the back but was never any more than two lengths in front of King Memphis who began to make serious headway past halfway and swooped to conquer on the run for home to land the Category One competition.

Reeling in King Capaldi, the stronger King Memphis had three-quarters of a length to spare over the runner-up, going away, with King Combs staying on well himself in third and Queen Dusty taking fourth to complete the perfect scenario for a delighted Rab McNair.

 

“That was fantastic and everything you work for,” he said. “We’ve had these pups from their first seconds of their lives. Liz whelped Beyonce down, stayed with the pups, made sure they were feeding well off mum, then you let nature takes its course!

“Fast forward to Sunday and Liz is watching at home with the next bunch of pups, plus the older ones, and sees the fruits of all that hard work. It’s what it’s all about and these pups have just been brilliant – they’ve run great and we couldn’t have asked any more.

“Memphis breaking the track record was one thing, but then winning the Puppy Derby is great. Many thanks to Towcester, to the sponsors, and to my friends Wayne and Liz Mazey who helped me out on the day. Wayne paraded King Combs, Liz had Queen Dusty and Jemma Tebbutt who works for ‘Big John’ Mullins had Capaldi.

“Thank-you to them all and to the lads, who make all this possible – Brendan (Keogh), Simon (Senyk) and Ian (Openshaw). We couldn’t do any of this without their support.”

On behalf of the sponsors, RPGTV’s executive producer Clive Lawrence said: “That was some achievement from Rab and Liz, so well done to them and the KSS Syndicate.

“After last year’s well documented issues with the competition, it was brilliant to see the Puppy Derby run smoothly, so well done to Towcester and to Kevin (Boothby, promoter) and his team and we look forward to some more top-class racing from Towcester and Kevin’s other tracks in 2024.

“However, back to Sunday’s winner and King Memphis in particular looks top-class. Breaking the Towcester track record in the semi-finals was something else and, looking ahead, connections will have high hopes of his chance in the 2024 Star Sports English Greyhound Derby, which will be live on the channel.”

The Coral Olympic at Hove is the target for King Memphis and King Combs, with runner-up King Capaldi set to head to Sheffield for the BGBF British Bred Derby.