DEANRIDGE AWESOM roared into the Grand Final of the inaugural Property 192 Graders Derby back at Towcester on Sunday, October 10, with a dominant display in the southern region decider at the Northamptonshire venue on Sunday.

Trained by Crayford handler Allison Kelly-Pilgrim, the May 2018 son of Sh Avatar and Deanridge Angel justified warm favouritism with a slick exit and an all-the-way near-five length success over fellow qualifiers Bentleys Bullet (Belinda Green, Hove) and Barkin Mad Andy (Richard Fitch, Henlow). The winning time was a slick 29.49sec (normal).

The Graders Derby is for greyhounds from a host of tracks who are graded A4 or below, with regional heats and finals at Towcester and Doncaster before the Grand Final next month – and Deanridge Awesom’s trainer Allison Kelly-Pilgrim was delighted to now have a crack at the £10,000 first prize.

“It’s great for the owners and is a really good prize for graded greyhounds – I wish we had more,” she said. “These dogs are very much the lifeblood of the sport and their owners should be congratulated and praised for keeping the show on the road in many ways.

“Yes, this dog has won opens but that was a while back and, to be honest, most of the time we would just put him in the van with the other open-race dogs just to give him a run, and he managed to win a couple. But he’s very much a graded runner, who turns out every Saturday at Crayford and does his bit.

“Towcester is great for him and was a fantastic opportunity to run him a galloping track which he’d be far better suited to then Crayford. We can now look forward to the final back here knowing he’s showing his best form here.”

Doncaster staged the final of the northern region on Monday where victory went to the Lisa Stephenson-trained Swift Chastity, who followed up her strong-running heat victory with a show of all-round speed to secure victory for the Sheffield representative.

Pacing up well to lead at the turn, the August 2019 daughter of former Owlerton favourite Candlelight King and Swift Angela was never headed as she crossed the line one and three-quarter lengths clear of the Towcester pair of Millhouse Alan and Burgess Vivato. both trained by Vicki Lea. The winning time for the 483m trip was 29.75sec (normal).

Winning trainer Lisa Stephenson said: “Ray Wood bought Swift Chastity from Ireland where she’d had a few races and won a couple. We thought she was nice and would also stay in time.

“However due to a change in circumstances Ray decided to sell her and Darren Driver, one of our loyal and existing owners, bought her straight away as he knew we thought a lot of her.

“She then had a bad case of the cough and Darren said to leave her as long as she needed – he’s a brilliant owner who thinks about the dogs first and doesn’t put us under any pressure. But she had a few months off and has come back and is running really well.

“Her progress in this event has come as a much-needed boost for the kennel after an awful run injury-wise, but as you could hear from Doncaster on Monday we had a fair few owners there supporting her.

“She’s a little nervous and was a little apprehensive at the line with everyone cheering, but we expect her to run Towcester well and just hope for a little luck in the final.”

Trap draw for the Property 192 Graders Derby Grand Final at Towcester on Sunday, October 10: 1. Barkin Mad Andy, 2. Millhouse Alan, 3. Swift Chastity, 4. Deanridge Awesome, 5. Bentleys Bully, 6. Burgess Vivato