Twelve months on from Clona Duke (Graham Holland) becoming the first Irish-trained runner of the prestigious and valuable £12,500-to-the-winner one-off, it was the Clonmel Produce Stakes champion who built on a fast C&D trial to strike gold in the 500m feature, the runners for whom are selected by the Greyhound Writers’ Association.

Well enough away from trap five in an all-railer line-up, the strapping 40-kilo April 2022 son of Droopys Sydney and Mystical Moll showed the best pace on the approach to the bend along with Links Maverick (Tom Heilbron) on his outside, also now in full flow. However, the inside line gave Unanimouspanther the edge as they swung round.

Quickly asserting as Links Maverick challenged again off the second bend, the Irish star now turned on the style, racing clear down the far side on his way to three and three-quarter lengths success over the running-on Barntick Bear (Patrick Janssens), closest at the finish, in 29.31sec (+30). Ireland’s Untold Dollar (Graham Holland) was third ahead of Newinn Syd (Mark Wallis), Links Maverick and Romeo Command (Patrick Janssens).

The JenningsBet Select Stakes was one of the showpiece events as Nottingham kicked off National Greyhound Week with a Bank Holiday Monday gala, staging the Select Stakes alongside the JenningsBet Puppy Classic Final and the JenningsBet Select Stayers – and Dave Evans, Nottingham’s general manager, was delighted with how the gala meeting panned out with a bumper crowd reported.

He said: “We had a great turnout for the JenningsBet Puppy Classic, Select Stayers and Select Stakes triple-header. Some 900-plus people saw Unanimouspanther come over from Ireland to take the Select Stakes, March On Freddie fly to Puppy Classic glory in the quickest time of the night, and Nottingham’s own Vale Bluebell (Jill Llewellin) taking the Select Stayers, which was great to see.

“JenningsBet, as always, played a massive part on the night, not only with prize-money but also by bringing over 200 people to the event from all over the UK which not only helped the atmosphere but hopefully got some new people into the sport who had never attended a greyhound meeting before. Everyone I spoke to had a great time

“Now we’re gearing up to the Premier Greyhound Racing Eclipse here in November. Finals night will once again be free to attend and, as we did with Monday’s event, if you come to Nottingham between November 1 and November 21, please visit our paddock bar to get a free finals night drinks voucher.”

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=416224&raceId=1064722