KALUKI again played his cards right for supporters when running out the fastest second round heat winner of the rearranged Stadium Bookmakers Juvenile Classic at Towcester on Sunday.

The event was held over a week because of the heatwave and it was the Vicki Lea-trained

September 2020 son of Toker Forest and Groovy Edel who produced the benchmark performance in heat two of the second round of the puppy competition, which was won last year by Brookside Richie.

Racing to a 4.15sec sectional off the back of a fast start, Kaluki made it two-from-two in the event and his UK career as the 28.91sec Enniscorthy winner stretched clear to win by three and three-quarter lengths from the Liz McNair-trained pair of King Ezra and fast-finishing favourite Havana Lover in 29.57sec (-10).

Rab McNair, husband of trainer Liz, was full of praise for the winner but happy enough with the performance of the kennel’s pair, who now line up in Sunday’s semi-finals – especially with home-bred King Ezra, the youngest semi-finalist.

“He’s only a January 21 so this is just to gain him experience and I was delighted with him,” said McNair. “He’s in this to give him a look at Towcester before the Puppy Derby back here and he’s done great to get to the semis. That in itself is a bonus, but Havana Lover would be our best chance, of course.

“She had trap one on Sunday and, in my opinion, that’s not where you want to be at Towcester. Remember she won the (SportyStuff TV) Puppy Cup on Derby final night from three and has got two this week. In time she’ll step up and the plan was to head to Monmore for the (Ladbrokes) Summer Classic.”

Ivanexile (Laughil Blake-Trusted Exile, Aug 2020) followed up his fastest-of-the-round effort in the first round with victory in heat one for Matt Dartnall. Soon in charge, the SportyStuff TV Puppy Cup third raced away to a two and three-quarter lengths success over Drive On Lad (Richard Rees) and Droopys Optimal (Eric Cantillon) in 29.66sec (-10).

Droopys Mural (Spoofer-Droopys Posh, Sept 2020) finished fast to strike gold for Richard Rees in heat three, denying Droopys Chaser (Paul Young) in the shadow of the post after the latter checked his stride before the line. The winning margin was a head and the winning time 30.02sec (-10). Crescent Allstar (Patrick Janssens) was third here.

The fourth and final heat went to Mark Wallis’s Aiden Mccoy (Magical Bale-Cashen Maureen, Aug 2020) who caught kennelmate Bower Bucko at the fourth bend before holding another Wallis runner Antigua Sugar for an Imperial Kennels one-two-three in 29.72sec (-10) for the 500m trip.

Form and draw for Sunday’s second round: https://towcester-racecourse.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/PUP.pdf