MATT DARTNALL landed an incredible treble in the semi-finals of the Premier Greyhound Racing Regency at Hove on Saturday to give the Oxford handler half the field in this weekend’s £20,000 final at the Sussex venue.

Victories for Swiper, Lively Lauren and another barnstorming run from Space Jet secured the kennel much-deserved plaudits and a chance of a first Dartnall victory in the famous and longstanding competition, which dates back to 1948.

First up was Swiper as the June 2021 son of Droopys Cain and Vinegarhill Toni took an early grip on proceedings in the opening semi and made all to land an 8-1 success by one and three-quarters from the keeping-on Jacktavern Magic (Mark Wallis) in 42.25sec (-45) for Hove’s six bends.

The victory delighted his team of owners, which include Space Jet’s owner Kurn Rushen, who all met at Walthamstow, as syndicate member Dave Cunningham explained.

He said: “Myself and Georgina have known Barrie (Clegg) and Debbie and Kurn and Maggie since our days in the Owners’ Bar at the Stow and have often thought about co-owning a dog.

“Kurn sourced Swiper unraced from Pat Hyland (the breeder of the Vinegarhill prefix) in Enniscorthy and kindly invited Barrie and myself to join in. We sent him to Matt Dartnall where Kurn has enjoyed so much success with Space Jet.

“Swiper had an early scare as a pup when he contracted a virus and was in the vet’s for three nights on a drip. He had us all very worried but battled through and was carefully brought back to rude health by Matt and his team.

“Matt has done a great job with Swiper and thought he might be right for the Regency after some early runs at Oxford where he stayed on well.

“It’s a bit of a cliche, the “we’re just so happy to be in the final etc”, but it’s really true for us three lads with this fella – the texts and messages between us after he won on Saturday were ones of amazement and delight.

“We know he’ll be the outsider but it’s just a real honour to be in the Regency final. Barrie and Kurn say he’s got his trap in the red-box, needs to hold the inside round the first and second bends, and find a bit more improvement on the clock. It’s not much to ask but, hey, we can dream!”

Swiper’s kennelmate Lively Lauren followed up Swiper’s success to land the Dartnall double in the second semi-final, a burst of early pace setting up a half-length victory from the always-handy Bubbly Scorcher (Paul Young). The winning time for the February 2021 daughter of Ballymac Anton and Art Of Illusion was 42.09sec (-45).

Finally, Space Jet again raised the roof to take the third semi, trailing her field for much of the way before conjuring up a huge run from halfway. Bursting through on the run for home, the crowd-pleasing February 2019 daughter of Droopys Jet and Volcano grabbed Savana Heross by a neck in 42.00sec (-45).

Form and trap draw for Saturday’s finals: https://assets.cj1.in/imminent-otter/production/assets/results/Brighton-Hove/form-guides/Sat-29th-July-Form-Adv.pdf