It was a case of so close and yet so far for last week’s selection Good Poet in the final of the Owners Bonus Series Final at the weekend.

As I had indicated, his weakness is being indifferent with his trapping starts. He came out of the boxes in last position but to his credit, he ran on strongly to eventually fail by just a neck. He was beaten by kennel-mate Old Father Time to give trainer Patsy Cusack a one-two in the big race.

Gemara has been racing here now for two years and always receives respect from the local bookmakers when running, which is reflected in his starting prices. With 30 finishes in the frame from his 71 career races, he has earned their respect and continues to land regular wins here.

His victory last Saturday night saw him recording a time of 23.31 seconds over 380 metres in grade A4, with a fast sectional time of 3.59 seconds. Nowadays, he hovers between grades A4 and A5 but times like this are good enough to win at least an A3 race, so I am expecting the racing office to upgrade him now to that level. The last time he ran in that grade was last December when he duly won.

Fernhill Fury is a greyhound that I have no hesitation in recommending to you. He is a class act having won 10 races from 17 starts here and runs this track particularly well.

He is possibly one of the fastest dogs at the track over the sectional part of the race.

The dog is at that stage of his racing career when he will be starting to produce his best so his connections have much to look forward too. You might not get a high price about him but a win is a win and he will continue to reward his followers over the coming months.

We currently have a good batch of top-grade dogs over both 380 and 540 metres, which always makes the racing more interesting.

Just when you think that you have the pecking order sorted in your head there is suddenly a shock result, as was the case on Saturday night when Melodys Patsy romped in at odds of 12-1 in the top-grade A1 race. My tip from the bunch at the moment would be puppy Oakfront Guest who has already won at this level despite only having had five career races. He looks a hot prospect.