THE Pall Mall is back on the GBGB schedule after eight official trial stakes for the Stadium Bookmakers-sponsored showpiece were staged at Oxford on Saturday – and Links Maverick proved the star of the show with a new track record for the 450m trip in the very first contest.

The last Pall Mall was last staged at the Cowley track in 2012 shortly before its closure, but the event returned with a fanfare performance from Tom Heilbron’s Newcastle raider who made no mistake when setting new figures for the one-lap there, posting a slick 3.77sec sectional on his way to a runaway victory.

Soon clear, the May 2021 son of Grangeview Ten and Havana Lottie, recent winner of a 450m competition supporting the Arc Puppy Cup at Sunderland and, before then, third to Bradys Bullet in the Premier Greyhound Racing Puppy Derby at Monmore, raced away for a five and a half lengths victory.

The winning time was 26.52sec (normal), taking an incredible 23 spots off the previous best, as Links Maverick led home Aero Malachi (Richie Taberner) and Ballyard Shawny (Mark Wallis). The first three in each of the eight trial stakes are invited to take their chance in the first round proper this weekend.

Training honours on the night were divided between Kevin Hutton and Patrick Janssens with doubles apiece.

Hutton struck with back-to-back wins given strong-running Rioja Joey (27.21sec) was followed by Coppice Tenzin (26.72sec), whose time was the joint-second fastest on the night along with the Janssens-trained Arc Laurels champion Hawkfield Ozark (26.72sec), while the latter’s kennelmate Coolavanny Shado (26.91sec) also scored on the night.

Other official trial stakes wins were notched by Seamus Cahill’s Watch The Limo (26.90sec), Richard Rees’s Burnchurch Mick (26.80sec) and Angie Kibble’s former track record holder Eze (27.01sec).

Oxford racing manager Simon Pearson was delighted how the eight official trial stakes unfolded with a host of top-class performances auguring well for a superb return of the famous event to the GBGB Calendar with heats on Saturday.

He said: “I thought overall it was a brilliant night’s racing which oozed quality. Obviously Links Maverick has to be the headline performance as he fully justified his tag as ante-post favourite. He absolutely flew out in the first trial stakes, clocking a 3.77 sectional, which is the fastest since the new traps were put in place.

“Maverick lowered the previous track by some way and really put his mark down on the competition early, although there were other very impressive winners such as Coppice Tenzin and Hawkfield Ozark – they posted identical clocks which were also inside the old track record.

“It all meant for some brilliant action in front of a really good crowd here. There was a real buzz about the place with the added bonus of Oxford’s biggest race – the Pall Mall – being back at Sandy Lane for the first time since 2012.”

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=399035&raceId=953840