Professional greyhound trainer Tom Heilbron is triple handed for this year’s Time Greyhound Nutrition Northern Flat final, which headlines a bumper card at Newcastle on Thursday.
The Trimdon handler has qualified Droopys Bookem, Unanimous Leon and Deliveroo for Thursday’s £12,500 final, which also features John Flaherty’s Naochra, Stephen Caile’s Hardwick Mighty and Brian Fairbairn’s Slingshot Shaz.
The competition holds a special place in Tom’s heart as four years ago it marked his first Category One success as a trainer when Pacemaker Ted won comfortably.
He now hopes to add to his Northern Flat win tally, but is taking nothing for granted despite being responsible for half of the race’s runners.
Droopys Bookem entered the competition fresh from his heroic English Greyhound Derby campaign where he qualified for the semifinals. For Deliverooo, Thursday’s race marks his first Category One final appearance at the fifth attempt.
Unanimous Leon meanwhile is hoping it’s a case of fourth time lucky after he reached the Birmingham Cup, Premier Greyhound Racing Classic and Premier Greyhound Racing All England Cup finals last year.
“It’s a special competition to me,” said Tom. “The Northern Flat was my first Category One win as a trainer, and we won it as a family twice when Pat (Rosney) trained for us – so we’d love to win again.
“All of ours have chances, it’s a seriously competitive final and you can make an excuse for each of them.
“(Droopys) Bookem has got his draw in trap one and was brave as a lion in his semifinal last week. If he turns in front, the rest of the field will have a lot of work on to catch him as he’s getting better with each run at Newcastle.
“On paper Unanimous Leon looks to have a bad draw, but when he joined the kennel he was a middle seed so trap five isn’t a disaster. He’ll need a 4.50 sectional to feature, but he’s capable of doing that on his day.
“Deliverooo has his box too as the only wide seed. He just keeps battling and has a 28.30 time to his name so he has the ability to make the frame too.”
Thursday’s card also features the £7,500 Arena Racing Company Angel of the North final. Tom is hoping the defend the crown Untold Ruble won 12 months ago and is represented by May ’23 bitch Dominoh Hoo Hoo.
Ashington trainer Jimmy Fenwick holds the aces, though, with three runners in the final – Bluebell Teddy, Coppice Saphire and Skeard Josie. Killieford Hanna and Bogger Darling complete the line-up.
Three races worth £1,000 to the winner are also scheduled for puppies and bitches and over Newcastle’s standard 480m trip. A marathon race over 895m is also due off at 7.27pm.
Tickets are available online from £9 and can be purchased via www.newcastle-greyhounds.co.uk. Doors open at 5.45pm with the first of 12 races on the night off at 6.37pm.
