When the BGBF committee were discussing how best to utilise our funds for 2020 we decided that we would very much like to support a competition which would see a high-profile final staged on Star Sports Bookmakers & ARC English Greyhound Derby Final evening at Nottingham’s Colwick Park stadium. Holding a competition with a final on such an evening not only served to give 18 of the very best British Bred greyhounds the opportunity to win a great prize on a special night, it also served to advertise the benefits of breeding British to a wider proportion of the greyhound racing community. When we were looking to name the competition the committee were unanimous, we should honour the memory of the sadly departed Natalie Savva. Natalie was married to Nick for some 57 years and held the license at Westmead kennels for a number of years in her own name. Natalie will be sadly missed by all of us in the sport but more importantly she will be missed by Nick and the wider family. We at the BGBF hope that in some small way the 18 runner British bred competition staged over the final two nights of the 2020 English Greyhound Derby served to honour Natalie’s memory and to show how much she will be remembered by us all.

The final itself was won by Agincourt Xena who was bred by Tim Piercy. ‘Xena’ was one of 3 bitches born in an equal litter of 3 girls and 3 boys. The litter was sired by Blackstone Marco out of Agincourt Xpress, born in July 2018 ‘Xena’ is now a winner of 7 of her 11 career races, finishing second on a further 3 occasions. Trained by the current champion trainer Mark Wallis, ‘Xena’ is firmly heading in the right direction and is sure to win many more races in the months that lay ahead. Despite being sent off for the final at double figure odds of 10/1 , she trapped well, showed much superior early pace to her rivals and made every single post a winning one. Stopping the clock in a top class 2969 over the 500m Derby distance off the back of a 5.00 sectional, reversing heat form with Kevin Ferguson’s Acomb Winston who had beaten her off by half a length in 3001 on that occasion.

This was a high class British Bred final, King Axle trained by Liz McNair, Acomb Jenny the second of Kevin Ferguson’s representatives, Boca Junior for Kevin Hutton and the Robert Smith trained Amka Rofe are all sure to be winning plenty more races in the future and will no doubt be leading players in forthcoming British Bred events sponsored by BGBF.

Click on images to enlarge – Thanks to Steve Nash