MONGYS WILD eyes a defence of his Premier Greyhound Racing Golden Jacket title next week after plundering a fifth Category One title with a track record-breaking victory in the Arena Racing Company Cesarewitch Final at Central Park on Saturday.

The exceptional Mark Wallis-trained, MWD Partnership-owned powerhouse was back to his brilliant best at the weekend as he raced away for a comfortable victory once negotiating the early exchanges unscathed and not allowing one of his rivals to escape.

“We saw what can happen sometimes in the semis when Deadly Disco ran great off the front and Ned (Mongys Wild) got shuffled back and was soon 15 lengths behind,” said winning trainer Wallis.

“Thankfully that wasn’t the case on Saturday and maybe the vacant trap next door helped there. He certainly had more room, but actually again trapped too well!

“That proved his downfall in the semis and I feared the worst when he came out again. You just want him to follow them round and thankfully he dropped himself out this time which worked because, once he has space, you’re pretty confident he’ll be tough to beat.”

Led by fast-trapping Princess Matilda (Gemma Evans) and then the pacing-up Romeo Empire (Patrick Janssens), it was the latter, the British Bred St Leger champion, who set the early pace.

However, with Mongys Wild now moving into second across the winning line first time and closing on the leader with every stride, the 1-4 favourite was on his way to success in the £12,500 annual.

Moving ahead of Romeo Empire approaching the penultimate bend, last year’s PGR Golden Jacket, PGR Regency, PGR St Leger and Time TV Trophy champion was on his way to another major trophy – crossing the line six and three-quarter lengths from Romeo Empire and the keeping-on Deadly Disco (Richard Rees), who was slowly away.

The winning time was a best-ever 43.64sec (normal) for the 731m trip, bettering Droopys Flare’s previous 43.87sec track record set in last year’s Cesarewitch.

Central Park racing manager Rob Killingbeck said Mongys Wild’s performance was up there with the best he has seen.

He said: “Mark (Wallis) has gone on record as saying Mongys Wild is the best stayer he’s trained and you can hardly disagree with the champion trainer!

“I thought Mongys was just so classy on the night. He’s a machine really over this sort of track and trip. The only disappointment was that he wasn’t up against Droopys Flare as well after Sean (Parker) had to withdraw her ahead of the semis.

“Nevertheless it was still a good field and performance-wise was definitely the high point of the night in what was a really good card for us. We had four finals in total and races over a variety of distances, a top-class Saturday night card, and we’ll be running opens each Saturday moving forward.

“There are regular two-run comps scheduled before our next Category One event, the Arc Kent Plate, which gets under way in the second week of March.”