Having always been a fan of Affane Soldier it has been pleasing to see the Patsy Cusack-trained dog running into some decent form of late.

He is the type of greyhound who always seems to be there or thereabouts in his races.

The dog had been knocking on the door recently so there should have been no great surprises when he won last week in grade A3 over 380m, however his winning price of 7/1 was very generous in my opinion.

The dog is versatile, being able to perform equally well over both 380m and 540m, and he is a past winner in grades A2 and S2 respectively over those distances.

Whilst I have never seen him as being a potential winner of an A1 or S1 top-grade race he is more than capable at level 2.

In short, whether his next race is over 380 or 540 metres a big performance can be expected.

Newcomer Luminous Banner was certainly thrown in at the deep end in his debut race here in late November when competing in an Open race over 540m.

This was only the dog’s third career race but interestingly our local bookmakers showed the dog due respect sending him off at odds of just 3/1, and that was justified when he finished second in the race.

Having now had seven career races and registering a win at S2 level you would have to think the dog is now in a position to win either a top grade or Open race here soon.

His owner has had some good wins with another of his dogs, Off Topic, and in Luminous Banner he may well have also struck gold.

Don’t forget to look out for races here over 714m during the next four weeks as potential entrants for this year’s £17,500 big race The Ladbrokes Golden Jacket will be turning up in an effort to impress the racing manager and hopefully be one of the 36 starters in the heats stage here on Saturday, February 14.

It would be nice to see Luminous Banner be amongst the starters so it is fingers crossed that his progress will continue in time.