MONGYS WILD laid down an early marker for Greyhound of the Year recognition when adding the Premier Greyhound Racing Golden Jacket title to his TV Trophy triumph in record-breaking style at the weekend.

The former Crayford competition was making a return to Monmore after some 40 years since Walthamstow trainer Dickie Hawkes’s Glenowen Queen won the famous trophy at the Wolverhampton venue in 1986.

The Golden Jacket had begun at Harringay, with Hall Green also hosting the competition for a year, before making its home in Kent.

Moved to Monmore and staged over 684m in 2025, Mongys Wild lit up the semi-finals with a new track record of 40.54sec, six spots inside Centaur Corker’s previous best set in 2003. Incredibly, the Wallis star bettered that mark again on Saturday with a show of pace and power in the £20,000 decider in front of a cracking crowd at the Entain track.

Well pitched inside, the October 2022 son of Roxholme Olaf and Banter Breeze always looked too close for comfort for his five rivals as Radical Scoby (Maxine Locke) and then the winner’s kennelmate Bombay Nutty took up the running before Mongys Wild stormed to the front down the back second time and soon put the race to bed.

Careering away from the field, the MWD Partnership-owned Mongys Wild crossed the line six and three-quarters clear of Bombay Nutty and Radical Scoby for a Wallis-trained one-two in 40.42sec (+45).

Victory secured the 15-time champion trainer a third win in the event after a brace of Golden Jacket successes for Wallis at Crayford with Hometown Honey (2014) and Patchys Kerry (2016).

Having won the TV Trophy, Mongys Wild was already shaping as one of greyhound racing’s newest and biggest stars and victory improved his UK record to 12 wins from 13 starts since arriving at Wallis’s Imperial Kennels after wins at Shelbourne and Clonmel.

Saturday’s victory was a magnificent ninth in a row for Mongys Wild and connections have suggested a third Category One triumph in 2025 will be sought in the Premier Greyhound Racing Regency at Hove in July, with an appearance at Towcester on Star Sports/TRC English Derby Final night beforehand also being considered.

Monmore racing manager Tony Williamson, reflecting on the first staging of the Golden Jacket at Wolverhampton in four decades, said it was an honour to take the race on.

“The Premier Greyhound Racing Golden Jacket is a famous race and it’s an honour to stage it here at Monmore again, especially after so many years. It went down really well with our Saturday night crowds who’ve been watching the UK’s finest staying greyhounds show their class – and enjoyed two new track records!

“Mongys Wild was awesome throughout and is going the right way to becoming the sport’s biggest star – certainly this side of the Irish Sea! Well done to his connections – the MWD Partnership of Mike Davis and Mark Wallis – and we’ll all be following Mongys Wild’s career closely.

“That was nine in a row here on Saturday – and you wonder who can stop him if the trip remains right? Even then he has the pace and stamina to tackle most six and eight-bend trips. He’s a fantastic greyhound and just so exciting to watch. We should enjoy him as much as we can.”