PERRY BARR continued its hugely busy period with eight heats of the Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks – just a week after the Midlands venue staged the rearranged Premier Greyhound Racing St Leger and M Lambe Construction Birmingham Cup finals.

Martin Seal, the track’s RM, has been busy this week readying the track for the Arena Racing Company Scurry Gold Cup, the traditional sprinters’ Classic, which starts on Saturday and supports the Oaks from the second round onwards of the bitches-only showpiece.

“We’ve got the Scurry heats plus the Oaks second round this weekend for what should be another brilliant night’s racing,” said Seal, adding: “The weather notwithstanding – and we’ve had it bad rain-wise of late – the racing has been top-notch and the next few weeks here will be very special, especially in light of recent news.”

Next year’s Oaks is set to be staged at a new track being built at Wolverhampton Racecourse, with the St Leger being re-routed to Nottingham in 2025.

“It looks as if we’ll stage the Arc Laurels in the early part of next year, but hopefully the Oaks and Scurry Gold Cup will again be great competitions here this year – as they have been for many years,” added Seal, who admitted to wincing when the draw for the Oaks first round pitted market leaders Druids Say Go and Avongate Venus together in heat one.

“That was some way to kick off the event, for sure, but it was a good race between two top-class bitches and I should say Patrick (Janssens) and Phil (Milner) were just delighted to get through. Thankfully they’ve missed each other in the second round!

“I thought Queen Joni was impressive – in the end. She was looking to face a tough ask surrounded by runners into the first bend. She had no luck when ante-post favourite here last year, if you remember, but things opened up for her on Saturday and she took her chance nicely as you’d expect. She has so much class, as does Queen Dusty, for a McNair double.

“They also had two major winners at Central Park, of course, so it was a busy night for them – and the other trainers with runners in the Oaks and Kent Derby I’d imagine.

“We’re set fair for Saturday now with both the Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks and Arena Racing Company Scurry Gold Cup and we’ve been delighted with the entry for both competitions.”

For the record, the Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks first round winners were Patrick Janssens’ Druids Say Go (27.89sec), Barry Denby’s Leighas Dream (28.02sec), Brian Thompson’s Ballyhealy Star (28.47sec), Nathan Hunt’s Icemans Girl (28.14sec), Liz McNair’s Queen Joni (28.35sec) and Queen Dusty (28.28sec), Carol Weatherall’s Chamberlain Kate (28.41sec) and Matt Dartnall’s Distant Cara (28.51sec).

Trap draw for Saturday’s Premier Greyhound Racing Oaks second round: https://www.perrybarr-greyhounds.co.uk/racing