SANTAS AMIGO lines up in Friday’s final of the Premier Greyhound Racing Classic at Sunderland as the fastest semi-final winner with Romford trainer David Mullins hoping the two-year-old can go even better than his third last year with Brindle Bully.

Following up a commendable second in the heats behind Romeo Steel, Santas Amigo blasted to a six-and-quarter lengths success in the first semi-final of the £20,000 Category One event at the north east track when leading home Droopys Sort (Carl Jackson). The winning time was a standard-setting 27.22sec (-10) for the 450m trip.

“We’re delighted with him, especially given the way he’s come back to form after time off the track,” said Mullins, who was a Sunderland-based trainer for a good few years before moving back to Romford and always enjoys his trips back to Wearside.

“Everyone knows I’ve got a soft spot for Sunderland and it’d be great to win one of their major competitions. We went close last year – Bully ran a cracker in third and it was definitely a case of ‘what if’ then. He was certainly a touch unlucky in running.

“Hopefully Santas Amigo has every chance to show his pace, and he’s got plenty of it,” added Mullins. “He had two months off after a setback at Nottingham in the semis of the Puppy Classic there but trialled back well and then we always had the Classic in mind.

“We’d taken him up for the Puppy Trophy. He trialled well under 27 seconds and won a trial stakes before just missing it in the heats and semis. But he’s getting himself into the race  sooner and hopefully can do the same on Friday, then we’ll see where we’re at.

“It’s a good final, perhaps not the one we all expected, but it’s still got lots of pace and quality,” added Mullins ahead of Friday’s showpiece.

Missing from the final will be ante-post favourites Romeo Steel and Slingshot Poppy who were both eliminated in the third semi-final.

Slingshot Poppy (Brian Fairbairn) trapped best but Romeo Steel (Patrick Janssens) paced up into the turn and the pair bumped at this point and then down the back-straight and rounding the last bend, allowing Angela Harrison’s Coolavanny Mercy and Unanimous Leon (Tom Heilbron) to finish best to secure places in the decider.

The winning time was a moderate 27.96sec (-10, reflecting the messy nature of the contest, but means both Coolavanny Mercy (fifth) and Unanimous Leon (second) have reached their second consecutive Premier Greyhound Racing Classic finals at Sunderland.

Earlier, the Kevin Boon-trained Bockos Buster paced up into the lead on the run to the turn in the second semi-final and the Arc Scurry Gold Cup fourth raced away for a three and a half lengths win from Whitehills Titan (Ryan Buckton) in 27.74sec (-10).

Trap draw for Friday’s final: 1 Unanimous Leon, 2 Bockos Buster, 3 Droopys Sort, 4 Whitehills Titan (m), 5 Santas Amigo (m), 6 Coolavanny Mercy (w).