It was another great night for British breeding on Sunday, with a fantastic Final of the 76th BGBF British Bred Produce Stakes at Swindon!  Signet Denver shot out of the traps like a bullet and there was absolutely no catching him – what a dog! How amazing that five from the same litter got through to the Final.  You might think that this reflects a low year for British breeding, but it doesn’t – with Covid it is true that numbers were not as high as some years – but it does reflect one exceptional litter, bred of course by Kevin Hutton, by the Westwell Club’s Magical Bale out of Kev’s amazing super brood Forest Natalee!  In the first round Signet Otis clocked 27.75, which was a new track record – then in the second round both he and brother Denver equalled this – then in the semi-final Signet Denver broke it again with 27.69 – and he almost equalled this when he took the Final in 27.70!

The Westwell Racing Club’s Westwell Emer had a good run to finish second, with Chris Waters and Lee Calcutt’s Signet Goofy, trained by John Mullins, in third.  Congratulations to the connections of all of the finalists – including of course to the fourth placed No Rush, the only one not part of this amazing family! She is by King Elvis out of Vahsel Bay, bred by Martin White and Barney Mooney in Shropshire and trained by Carol Weatherall for Callum and John Purdy. She was the youngest in the line-up and with only 12 races under her belt before this Final, but these included being in the Final of the BGBF Maiden Derby at Newcastle in May; she made the most of her preference for a wide run from 4, but was crowded first and never quite on terms with the leaders.

We haven’t seen the last of Natalee’s pups either – there is a July ‘21 litter by Confident Rankin coming along soon – then in April this year she had a litter by Droopys Sydney, currently in John Mullins’ rearing paddocks! 

Thanks to the team at Swindon for putting on the Produce Stakes again – it isn’t the easiest of competitions to run, all credit to their Sue Warren who deals with all the various entry stages.  It will be interesting to see the entry levels next year as in 2021 and 2022 the litter stage entry has been free and automatic when we register litters with the Stud Book, so hopefully this will prevent breeders realising they have forgotten to enter their litters in time!