On Tuesday the 17th of October, the Steel City Cup Final was held at Sheffield! The card was fantastic, with so many great supporting opens; all of which had been sponsored to help raise funds for the Sheffield Retired Greyhound Trust. The final saw John Mullins get his second back to back winner, with Swift Iconic leading throughout. Well done to all connections!
The atmosphere was fantastic, with the stadium being packed both upstairs and downstairs. The outside area was full of racegoers and owners alike, passionately cheering on the dogs. It was such a great evening!
On the final card, all the races were sponsored with the money going to the Sheffield Retired Greyhound Trust. Dogs were also sponsored, with the winning sponsor receiving a bottle of prosecco. For the last race of the night there was a human handicap race, in which Dani Jackson (Trap 2) won. All funds raised by these events went to the charity, with the total amount of money raised at the time of writing being at £6,055! Well done to everyone involved, a fantastic achievement.
If anyone would like to donate, you can do so here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-sheffield-retired-greyhounds-rcn-1204143
Below is a small summary of the final and human handicap!
The final
What a great end to the 2023 steel city cup! The final saw 5 dogs run, with trap 6 being vacant due to Rioja Joey picking up an injury the previous week. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. The 8/13F Coolavanny Shado (trap 2) and Marlfield Diaz in Trap 1 caused lots of trouble for each other straight out the traps and onto the first bend, completely diminishing their chances of winning the final. Trap 3, Swift Iconic showed some fantastic early pace, avoiding the trouble on the bends before powering on with a clear run throughout. One Day Tom and Acomb Felix soon followed, however there just was no catching the Mullin’s trained dog.
Swift iconic is John Mullin’s second consecutive steel city cup winner, with Signet Goofy winning the previous year! What a fantastic achievement, well done to all connections.
1st: Trap 3, Swift Iconic (28.68). Owned by Mr.C.J.Waters, trained by John Mullins (Yarmouth/Towcester)
2nd: trap 5, One Day Tom (29.02). Owned by Mr.N.Kellett, trained by Jason Gray (Nottingham)
3rd: trap 4, Acomb Felix (29.03). Owned by Mr.K.J.Ferguson, trained by Kevin Furguson (Kinsley)
Human race
The second most anticipated race of the night was the human handicap fundraiser for the Sheffield retired greyhounds, taking place after racing featuring some very well known figures in the sport. Running from trap 1 was Rob Crawford, who is well known for his commentary on Sky. Rob received a 280m head start on the rest. From trap 2 we had RPGTVs Dani Jackson receiving a 220m handicap start. In trap 3 was greyhound owner Billy Brennan with a 180 metre start. In the black jacket was kennelhand Connor Davy, running with a 80 metre head start. Matt Hamilton, the venue director at Owlerton donned the orange jacket of trap 5 and got a 20 metre lead. Finally wearing the striped shirt of trap 6 was owlerton racing manager and former marathon runner Andrew Mascarenhas who had it all to do from a scratch start at the 500m boxes.
The race started as you’d imagine with Rob in the lead and Dani in pursuit with the others way behind. Rob held the lead up until the final bend where he visually started to tire, allowing Dani to take over and from there, there was no looking back for Dani who kept her lead and won the race quite convincingly, which was a huge shock to punters as she was a 9/1 outside shot. The positions of 2nd and 3rd was a much more tight affair with Connor, Rob and Billy contesting them, but it was Billy who took the silver medal position and Connor managed to just pass Rob for 3rd. Andrew and Matt were given a near impossible task and did not feature as much in the race as they would have liked to.
As of writing this, the race has raised just over £6000 for the Sheffield Retired Greyhound Trust! A great achievement, well done to all involved! Donations are still being accepted on the GoFundMe, linked here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-sheffield-retired-greyhounds-rcn-1204143
1st: Trap 2, Dani Jackson (R220)
2nd: Trap 3, Billy Brennan (R180)
3rd: Trap 4, Connor Davy (R80)
The race can be seen on Owlerton’s Youtube channel, or by clicking the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXUbIpItwmA