SIMON FRANKLIN, Yarmouth’s promoter, hailed another successful running of the Click Competitions East Anglian Greyhound Derby at the seaside venue.

The 79th running of the famous competition, victory went to the Patrick Janssens-trained Romeo Steel who landed a third East Anglian Derby title for his trainer after Kilara Lion’s success in 2020 and last year’s victory of Druids Say Go, in an event during which the track record was broken twice.

Swift Depot (27.10sec) had clipped just under a length off the previous best held by King Elvis in the heats before Romeo Steel went even quicker in the semi-finals with a blistering 27.04sec, meaning he went to traps a warm order to take the £15,000 first prize – and the 3-10 favourite made no mistake.

Pacing up into the lead on the run to the bend, Romeo Steel used the inside line to fend off the challenge into the bend of the fast-starting Bockos Buster (Kevin Boon) before bursting clear off the second bend on his way to a five and a quarter length victory over the running-on Burrows Charm (Jason Heath) and Brindle Bully (David Mullins).

Victory for Romeo Steel proved a British-bred success in the East Anglian Derby for owner and breeder Dave Firmager and helped the August 2022 son of Ballymac Cashout and Fabulous Amalfi to a first Category One success to go with his successes in the BGBF TruFrame Champion Stakes at Towcester on English Derby final night this year and the BGBF British Bred Midlands Sprint Trophy at Nottingham in March.

“He clearly deserved the victory given what he’d done to the track record in the semi-finals and once he’s led, there was no coming back,” said Simon Franklin.

“Well done to Patrick (Janssens) and his team. They always seem to do well and you wonder with luck whether they might have had more Yarmouth Derby wins – they’ve got three now but Coolavanny Shado reached two finals here, finishing second in his first one,  and Bockos Jon Jo was also second.

“Still, I know they enjoyed this one – and we did, too. The weather wasn’t great during the afternoon which meant a few racegoers who’d been at the horse racing during the afternoon needed to dry off when they got here, but the weather cleared into the evening and the racing was good and the crowd was very decent as well.

“I’d like to thank all the trainers and their owners for supporting the East Anglian Derby and the supporting competitions once again – plus an extra special thanks to our sponsors which were Click Competitions, the stadium bookmakers, Mike Davis and Mark Wallis or the MWD Partnership, Sonata Security, C&C Sheds and Richard Marling.

“Their support is appreciated and helped make another successful EA Derby here, which we’re all immensely proud of.”