Mullrook Celtic, Short Stroll and Aero Jiminez are the first three Crayford-trained dogs to be entered for the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket Trial stages here.

Both Celtic and Jiminez are trained by Julie Luckhurst, while Patsy Cusack sends out Short Stroll.

All three greyhounds will be hoping to come home in front in these trials and more importantly to record fast win times to be considered as serious contenders to be accepted into the heats stage of the Golden Jacket on Saturday, February 8.

This event is run over a testing 714m and the starting 36 dogs in the heats will be the best from both the UK and Ireland.

This will be the first time that Aero Jiminez has attempted the distance, so he will be somewhat of an unknown quantity, but he performs well regularly here over 540m and has given every indication that he will stay further.

His starting price in his trial race may be the best indication of how realistic his chances are but it will certainly be interesting to see how he fares.

In contrast, both Mullrook Celtic and Short Stroll have raced over 714m, but the former will not have raced against this level of company before and may find it tough.

Having said that he has some decent finish times on his card, hence his participation in the trials.

Short Stroll is the best known of the three over 714m and has won four such races here in the past.

He is the type of dog who could just sneak into the event proper and his form book shows he has broken the magic 46-second barrier before which is a must if you are to have any chance of winning the Golden Jacket.

The dog has been in good form of late and racing in Open races so no doubt this has persuaded trainer Patsy Cusack to let the dog take his chance.

Back on the domestic graded front I would like to draw your attention to Pennys Plate, who has made an early impact here during her 21 races at the track to date.

In June she ran in her debut race at Crayford, which she duly won over 380m in grade A5 and since then has progressed steadily to now find herself in grade A2 just one level from the very top class.