DARBYS DELIGHT produced a last-to-first finish to thrill a bumper crowd at Sheffield on Sunday as Tom Heilbron’s dog landed a superb victory in the Queen Mother Memorial Cup Final.

 

The Category Two event, a staple of one of the Owlerton Stadium’s biggest meetings of the year, offered a £3,000 first prize but the destination of that was unclear until the run for home given Darbys Delight trailed his field early as first defending champion Slapdash Tommy (Nathan Hunt) and then Ballymac Archer set the fractions.

 

Local hope Ballymac Archer (Stephen Naylor) had taken up the running off the second bend and kicked on but Darbys Delight was soon in full flow behind and weaved his way through, much to the delight of backers of the 4-6 favourite.

 

Hitting the front on the run for home, the July 2019 son of the Over Limit and Kittys Box went on to score by a length and a quarter from Ballymac Archer and Slapdash Tommy in 39.65sec (normal) for the 660m trip.

 

Victory for Darbys Delight came less than 24 hours after Newcastle trainer Heilbron sent out Links Maverick to finish third in the Premier Greyhound Racing Puppy Derby Final at Monmore – ending the weekend on a high note for the young Newcastle handler.

 

Heilbron said: “I keep saying it was great consolation for Saturday night, but it’s much more than that because it’s a massive achievement for this dog in his own right – and I don’t want to take that away from him.

 

“He’s been a brilliant dog to train and I have to give a massive thanks to Leonard Kinsella and Connor Byrne for trusting me with him. Both are top drawer gentleman and I think we’ll have plenty of fun in the future with Darbys Delight and the other dogs. 

 

“He’s won 11 races from 25 starts for me and has only competed in top company.

 

“He came over with something of a reputation in terms of being genuine, but I’m convinced he’s well past that now and Sunday’s run showed how much grit and determination he has to win. 

 

“He’s taken a massive shine to Sheffield so we had the Queen Mother Cup in mind for him for a while. After going so well in the heats, and then getting trap one in the final, I was really confident in him, but I’ve watched the final back some 20 times and still don’t know how he’s won! He was phenomenal.  

 

“Darbys Delight will be heading to Sunderland now for the (Arena Racing Company) Grand Prix and will target most of the top six-bend competitions this year.”

 

Result: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=395032&raceId=922004