Nottingham Greyhound Stadium hosts one of the UK’s most prestigious competitions on Monday night with the final of the Premier Greyhound Racing Eclipse.
Worth £20,000 to the winner, the competition was first held in 1938 and has been staged at the Colwick Park venue since 1987.
Monday’s final will be contested by six of the UK and Ireland’s fastest greyhounds. Nathan Hunt trainer of Droopys Google has high hopes for a UK victory.
“We are delighted to have a runner in the final of this prestigious competition with such high stakes, which only improves the quality of the racing at the top,” said Nathan Hunt.
“Droopys Google has proven to be an exceptional competitor, making it to the finals of events such as the Kent Plate, Derby Plate, Sussex Cup, and Champion Stakes already this year.”
Nathan and his team have achieved some success already in a top-tier Category One competitions this year with victory in the Steel City Puppy Derby at Sheffield with Droopys Fidget. Nathan has high hopes of landing a second when Droopys Google runs in the Finals of the 2023 Premier Greyhound Racing Eclipse Stakes on Monday.
“Droopys Google has done us extremely proud this year, it is his fifth final and it would be amazing if we could go one better this time around,” said Nathan Hunt.
“He came second in the Sussex cup in the summer, where he ran a blinder. So, it would be incredible to bring home the trophy in such an elite competition. He performed brilliantly in the semi-final, showing incredible pace down the back straight and was unlucky to catch Bockos Crystal at the wrong time, going into the third bend, causing him to ease off slightly, but he ran on strong as expected.”
He added: “It will be a very challenging final and will be incredibly difficult to back run any of these sorts of dogs, they are all capable of doing very good times when they lead. He will need to trap out well, trap five probably isn’t ideal for him being a railer, but I don’t think he will dive across to the rails, he should hold his position and hopefully produce one of his better breaks around the first couple of bends to avoid any crowding.”
While Droppys Google aims for the final, Nathan won't be cheering from the terraces; as he is currently on a specially arranged tour of the sport's operations in Sydney, Australia. Nevertheless, he'll be waking up in the early hours to tune in and stay connected.
“I am really looking forward to a great night’s racing, it is unfortunate that I won’t be able to see it in person, however he is in great hands with the team and they are doing a fantastic job.
“I want to really thank Premier Greyhound Racing for putting on an incredible Category One race with such a large amount of prize money. The prize money is really improving at the top end, which is great to see. It would really mean everything to win such a prestigious competition.”
General admission plus trackside and restaurant packages for the Grand Final of the £20,000 Premier Greyhound Racing Eclipse at Nottingham Stadium on Monday, 27 November, are on sale now and available to book here.
Doors open at 5.30pm with the first race of the evening off at 6.26pm.
2023 Premier Greyhound Racing Eclipse Grand Final draw:
Trap One – Ballymac John
Trap Two – Newinn Syd
Trap Three – Bockos Crystal
Trap Four – Clona Duke
Trap Five – Droopys Google
Trap Six – Burj Khalifa
