MONMORE racing manager Tony Williamson has paid tribute to the Jones family after another highly successful Lawrence Jones Memorial Festival at the Wolverhampton track on Saturday – a night topped off by a standard-setting performance from recent Ladbrokes Gold Cup champion and three-time Category One winner Links Maverick.

Tom Heilbron’s flying machine made it 11 wins in a row in the concluding 480m contest, justifying odds of 1-10 in the process as he stopped the clock in a fast 27.86sec (+10) for the 480m trip after making all the running. The Arc Classic at Sunderland is set to be the hugely talented two-year-old’s next GBGB Category One target.

“That was some run – and the perfect way to bring to a close another fantastic Lawrence Jones Memorial Festival meeting,” said Williamson. “This was the tenth staging of the meeting which we have tended to make a full open-race meeting but this year opted to include three kennel sweepstakes competitions.

“Lawrence was a trainer here at Monmore for many years – his son Chris is a trainer here, of course – and we thought it right to give own trainers a crack at a decent pot with their graded runners because, remember, each race was worth £1,000 to the winner. It’s not often graded runners get a chance to race for that sort of money, so it just seemed right.

“However, also quite rightly, the open-racers took centre-stage and Links Maverick was superb as we expected in the finale. Fair play to Tom (Heilbron) for coming back here again with Maverick. He clearly loves the track – and everyone at Monmore loves the dog, too. What he did in the Gold Cup a few weeks back will live long in the memory.

“Gougane Jet is another popular runner here for Mark (Wallis). He has an incredible record for the sprint here (15.21sec +5) and, with his kennelmates Antigua Bigun (28.65sec normal) and Newinn Syd (28.26sec normal) also winning, it was a good night for Mark.

“It was good to see Cochise (37.53sec +15) frank the form of the (Ladbrokes) Summer Stayers Classic. He ran third behind Fromposttopillar and Droopys Clue and that’s a final which is looking increasingly top class given what Droopys Clue did at Perry Barr on Saturday.

“I think you’ve also got to give special mention to Crossfield Larry (12.34sec normal). The shorter 210m sprint trip is not too often used but Larry is a really popular sort of Richie Taberner’s and set new figures for the distance.”

The Taberner kennel also struck in the S1 Lawrence Jones Memorial Festival Kennel Sweepstakes Final as Aero Arran, who ran in the Derby, won easily over 630m in 37.88sec (+15), while kennelmate.

Seans Fiddle (29.22sec +10) was on the mark in the A10 event. The other sweepstakes decider (A6) went to Vicki Lea’s El Prez Wolfe (28.93sec +10).

The remaining races were won by Chris Fereday’s Noduff Sahara (28.69sec normal) in the 480 Puppy, Gwyneth Rees’s Sheffield sprinter Knock Zia (15.35sec normal) in division two of the sprint, John Flaherty’s Greenwell Grace (28.63sec +10) in the 480 British Bred and Barrie Draper’s impressive Ballymac Archer (41.39sec +20) in the Festival 684.

Williamson concluded: “Well done to all the winners and those who took part on a fantastic night’s racing for the Lawrence Jones Memorial Festival. A big thank-you again must go to Linda Jones, her son Chris, and the family for their sponsorship in the memory of Lol, who was a proper greyhound man, loved his greyhounds, and the sport itself.”