RADICAL SCOBY was fastest in the heats of the Coral Coronation Cup at Romford on Friday with a magnificent standard-setting 34.82sec (normal) victory over the 575m trip.

However, Maxine Locke’s runner very much shared the plaudits with reigning champion New Destiny, who lit up the Essex track again for her legion of supporters.

Lining up in heat two, last year’s Coronation Cup and Premier Greyhound Racing Champion Stakes heroine weaved her way through to challenge down the back second time before racing away for a superb eight and half lengths win over Golden Palace (Michelle Brown) in 35.00sec (normal), a fine time in its own right given her off-the-pace efforts.

Three races later in heat five Radical Scoby, one of the stars of English Greyhound Derby final night having narrowly won the greyhoundtrader.com Stakes, kept the winning vein with a real impressive victory, always handy behind fast-starting Fabulous Sonique (Mark Wallis) before kicking clear for a three and a quarter lengths win.

Incidentally, Fabulous Sonique clocked the fastest sectional of the night with a super-slick 13.36sec here.

Romford’s six-bend annual kicked off with a local success courtesy of Gemma Evans’ Dower Duchess who made the most of the inside line to grab gold in heat one.

Soon clear off the back of a slick 13.52sec sectional, the daughter of Ballymac Bolger was never headed for a length and a half success over Noirs News (Seamus Cahill), last year’s Premier Greyhound Racing Champion Stakes runner-up, in 35.40sec.

Another slick sectional on the night was posted by Phil Milner’s Avongate Venus who blasted to a 13.47sec split on her way to an eye-catching heat three victory.

Another star of Derby final night at Towcester six days previously, last year’s Empress Stakes winner made all to score by two and three-quarter lengths from Whitewood Libre (Gemma Evans) in 35.31sec (normal).

Hogans Hawk matched that time in heat four as Seamus Cahill’s bet365 Hunt Cup winner set out her stall for more Category One glory with a powerful off-the-pace victory over the staying-on Mad For Sterling (Mark Wallis), who got to within three-quarters of a length of the winner.

Biggest-priced winner of the night was the Jim Reynolds-trained Cree Bono (8-1) who was always handy before coming through after halfway before keeping on to cross the line a length clear of the fast-finishing Teddie (Belinda Green) in 35.36sec (normal).

Romford racing manager Mark Arkell was delighted with how the heats went.

He said: “Overall it was a brilliant night’s racing and kicked off a busy open-race weekend here for us.

“We had a fundraiser for St Kiernans GAA on Saturday night – and a rare night of open races! We had a bunch of £1,000-plus opens on the card which was great and it went well despite the heat.

“Friday was great also.

“New Destiny clearly doesn’t want to loosen her grip on the Coronation Cup trophy, but it was also great to see runners who came out of the Derby and the supporting races being available to run in the competition.

“Last year the Derby and the Coronation Cup clashed which meant that was impossible and I’d say the event is better for that now.”

Trap draws for Friday’s semis: https://imminent-otter.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/results/Romford/form-guides/FRIDAY-PROOF_2025-06-20-204014_tfig.pdf