The BGBF Category Two British Bred  Sprint  saw us return to Harlow after a couple of years’ absence from the friendly Essex track. Our £3000 to the winner Final on Wednesday saw an impressive winner in the shape of Sonic Emjay, trained by John Mullins and owned by breeder Kelly Macari along with Mark Bates, Simon Oakes and Alex Wade, who also took home a handsome trophy and a winners’ jacket!  Runner-up was Ballymac Elvis, owned by Keith Elliott and trained by David Lewis; third was the Nathan Hunt trained Bang On Harry, owned by Phil Simmonds and Ned O’Connor.

Sonic Emjay has not always trapped at his best in the past, but this time he confounded his doubters and took hold of the race from the start.   He comes from a big September 2019 litter of ten, by King Elvis out of Kelly Macari’s Mill Patricia.  All ten have won races, and half of them are contesting open races which is some achievement. And, of course, their sire is another British-bred in King Elvis, so that makes it even better.  Interestingly three of the finalists are by King Elvis, including runner-up Ballyoak Elvis and Bang On Harry.

John Mullins had taken Sonic Emjay on from Newcastle trainer Stuart Tight after Stuart and Kelly felt he’d do better around some of the tighter southern tracks – and they were right!

Congratulations to all the finalists. They all ran well for their connections and produced a really good final and, while Sonic Emjay managed to get away, it was a good race for the places and not much between them.

Thank you to David Barclay and Harlow Stadium for hosting our event. The atmosphere was really good, the restaurant was full to overflowing, and it seemed a very popular and happy place. Our thanks, too, to SIS for their continued support of British breeding and for backing our events.