POCKET LOLA (Droopys Sydney-Banabane, June 19) heads into Sunday’s semi-finals of the 75th British Bred Two-Year-Old Produce Stakes at Swindon having posted the fastest time of Wednesday’s six second-round heats of the British-bred annual.

Bred and trained by Seamus Cahill and his wife Teresa, Pocket Lola raced to an all-the-way victory in heat three, clocking 28.33sec for the 476m trip, bettering littermate Surprising’s success in heat one, albeit last year’s Towcester Puppy Derby champion had to ride a first-bend bump before scoring in 28.63sec.

The Jamie Kingsley-trained Baran Jupiter impressed in heat two as the

January 2019 son of Eden The Kid and Baran Barracuda led off the second bend to score readily in 28.45sec, much to the delight of owner Steve Baran.

He said: “I was pleased how Baran Jupiter ran in his quarter-final. He’s from Baran Barracuda’s first and only litter. He’s improved so much since going to Jamie’s kennels.”

The other Produce Stakes quarter-finals were won by the Richard Rees-trained Khufu (28.82sec), leading of the second bend, and Kim Gooding’s pair of littermates Shockwave Onyx (28.66sec) and Shockwave Zircon (28.70sec). The pair are December 2019 sons of Droopys Sydney and Southoe Silver.

Swindon’s social media manager and photographer Josh Sealey said: “Having been involved with my grandad’s schooling track from a young age, and the majority of pups schooled being British-bred, this competition has always been high on my interests to see how far some of the pups have improved.

“I think it’s also a great competition for seeing those future stars in the making as some of these greyhounds have only had a few months of racing and are already doing some flying times.

“Seamus Cahill had the best of the second-round with two heat winners in Surprising and Pocket Lola, who was also fastest on the day, and Sharp Biddy taking third place in her heat. She’s a daughter of their former kennel star Forest Con.

“You have to be impressed with Kim Gooding’s pair of littermates, the two Shockwave runners, with just half a length between their respective winning times.

“Of the others, I still don’t personally think we’ve seen Baggios Champ at his best and yet he’s managed to just scrape through once again, so it will be interesting to see if he shows the speed from his pre-event trial.

“We’ve also one Swindon raider still in the mix in the form of Hometown Legacy who actually broke his hock as a six-month-old puppy, so this is a big achievement to be this far in the competition after such a huge setback.

“After Sunday’s semi-finals there’s a week-long break until the final. We’ve free entry here at Swindon for both nights so hopefully this brings as many people as possible in to watch and enjoy this great competition.”

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=377191&raceId=772215