A fantastic evening’s racing at Newcastle showcased British Breeding on Thursday, with two BGBF Finals – the cat 2 BGBF Northern Maiden and the cat 3 BGBF Sprint – plus three additional supporting British Bred opens!

The BGBF Northern Maiden, a three round Cat 2 competition with £3,000 plus trophy to the eventual winner, was the highlight of the night, and was won in fine style by Kevin Ferguson’s Acomb Jenny, the win completing an unbeaten run through the competition for her!   By Hiya Butt out of Kevin Fergusons’  homebred Acomb Ruby, she is one of a very talented August ‘18 litter: earlier in the evening, litter brother Acomb Winston had an easy win in the BGBF British Bred Standard, and sister Acomb Lillian was runner-up in the cat 3 BGBF Sprint Final!  It was lovely to see Kevin’s daughter Eleanor there playing a big part, too!  Congratulations to them for a great breeding / training performance!

Congratulations also to the connections of Killie Phanter and Short Verse, who took second and third place respectively in the 480m Final!

Earlier in the evening saw the Final of the two round Cat 3 BGBF British Bred Sprint, won emphatically by Angela Harrison’s Alnwick Alan in 16.93.  Favourite to win after his first round success, he is a talented son of Blackstone Gene, bred by Angela and owned by Paul Kendall’s Jeff Stelling Fan Club syndicate, owners of the dam Droopys Aliyah. He had been kept especially for this competition, as Sprint opportunities have been hard to come by this year, and amply repaid Angela’s patience!  Runner-up was Acomb Lillian with Stuart Ray’s homebred A Bit Of Beauty, in third.

The supporting races showed quality too – and some new faces in BGBF competitions!  Robert McCarthy’s Glengiblin Tommy, bred by Raymond Thompson up at Nenthead, won the British Bred Maiden Division 1, while Division 2 went to Stuart Ray’s Abitofa Mistral, bred by his wife, local vet Helen Ray, by Farloe Blitz out of their homebred A Bit Of Glory.

All in all it was a fantastic evening! Many thanks to Ian Walton and his team for the way in which they have run the whole event, with two well supported competitions and the additional British Bred opens on Finals night – it became a real festival of British breeding, great to see that!  We hope to build on this success next year, and hopefully we will all be able to be there by then!