So, were you all on last week’s main tip Dash On Black?

The Barry O’Sullivan-trained dog continued her rich vein of form when romping home on Saturday at very generous odds of 4-1 in a top-grade S1 race over 540m.

I for one would not be surprised if further wins follow.

One of our top performers, Off Topic – also from the O’Sullivan kennel – has made a return to the race card after a lay-off of two months due to lameness.

He had won six of his seven races, progressing up from bottom grade A8 up to A3 and although he probably needed his first race back to gain race fitness that was an extremely competitive A2 event where he came home fourth.

He made no mistake, however, when dropped to A3 level last Thursday coming from last place to win at odds of 3-1.

The dog has class and may figure more prominently this time in an A2 race when he reappears. A decent price can be expected.

I am, of course, often asked for tips when on duty during race meetings so it is always nice to be able to accommodate people when possible. Such was the case last Thursday on one of our Christmas lunch afternoons in our restaurant.

I had been watching the performances of Newinn Bound, who had already had 19 career races here registering just two wins, but he is the type who I thought had a big run in him given the right opposition. Last week’s race looked a likely opportunity for the dog.

One of his previous wins had come in an A6 race some time ago when he won in 23.77sec, so in last week’s A7 race there was no reason why he could not repeat that.

And so it proved as he flew home in 23.46 at 7-2 to the delight of many of the diners.

The point is the form book does not lie. It is often just a case of waiting for the right race, however long.

We have a busy race schedule over Christmas and New Year, so if you want to come along you can view our opening and race times at www.crayford.com or you can call the stadium on 01322 557836, option 1, for details.

The main feature on our Boxing Day morning meeting will be the £2,500 final of the JB Riney MBE Marathon over 874m, which is one of our major races here.