COPPICE BREWER was narrowly quickest in Saturday’s Ladbrokes Summer Stayers Classic semi-finals at Monmore on a night when just two of the 630m semis were completed.

Victories for Coppice Brewer and Warzone Tom in the first and third semi-finals were separated by a no-race in the second semi-final when the traps opened late. A draw was made to determine the two finalists for this weekend’s six-bend showpiece with Chelms Cub (Jason Heath) and Great Name That (Gary Griffiths) lining up in the £10,000 decider.

They will join Coppice Brewer in the six-bend annual after Kevin Hutton’s dog bounced back to his pre-event best when landing the spoils with a superb show of all-round speed in the first semi-final.

The June 2020 son of Droopys Sydney and Sizzling Daisy, who impressed with back-to-back Monmore victories on his first attempts over a trip, was soon handy outside and swept to the front off the second bend before going on to score by two and a half lengths from the staying-on Amaze Me Seb in 38.38sec (-40).

Warzone Tom maintained his unbeaten record in the three-round competition when skipping clear early in the third semi. Leading at the first bend, the Liz McNair-trained star was never headed thereafter as he crossed the line two lengths in front of Darbys Delight (Tom Heilbron) in 38.39sec (-40), just one spot slower than Coppice Brewer.

Rab McNair, husband of trainer Liz, said of Warzone Tom: “He’s just a great dog for us, Brendan (Keogh, KSS Syndicate) and the lads.

“This 630m is probably as far as he wants and the slower going wouldn’t have helped him. But he got away and was strong enough to keep them all at bay. He’s always had lots of speed – we saw that in his early races for us at Towcester over 500m and then when winning the Gold Collar at Crayford over 540m.

“I thought he ran great at Hove in the Sussex Cup – he wasn’t beaten far by Belinda’s dog (Ninja Kerry) and on another day might have won. He’s kept his form at Monmore and we’re obviously hoping for the same again – but you always need luck in these major competitions. We might be overdue some!”

Draw and form for Saturday’s finals: https://assets.cj1.in/imminent-otter/production/assets/results/Monmore/form-guides/Saturday-finals-proof-27-8-22.pdf

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=388255&raceId=866149