Murlens Crash won the Tony Morris Memorial Rose Bowl at the weekend for the all-conquering kennel of Mark Wallis who trains at Yarmouth Stadium.

After an indifferent start, the dog showed tremendous early pace to the first bend and took command from that point on, romping home by three and a half lengths.

The dog benefited from trouble for all the other runners at the turn and on this evidence we can expect the greyhound to be back at Crayford in the future over the 380m distance. Mark is in the running to be the trainer of the year and he has strength in depth in his kennel, so always look-out for his runners here.

We always have decent crowds at the track over the Christmas period and there is certainly a festive buzz as we approach our most popular meeting of the year on Boxing Day morning. My advice if you plan to come along on that morning is to arrive as early as possible, the turnstiles open at 9am and racing starts at 10.30am.

Our next big race is the J B Riney MBE Boxing Day Marathon which carries a winner’s prize of £2,500 and is run over our maximum distance of 874m. The big guns will be entering so expect some of the country’s top marathon dogs to be on view.

The competition starts with 18 dogs in three heats on Saturday, December 21, with the first two in each heat progressing to the Boxing Day final.

Back on the home front, trainer Julie Luckhurst looks to have a new star on her hands in the shape of Never Back Down who won here last Saturday night over 540m in impressive style. The dog has experience on her side having recently joined Julie’s kennels following 37 competitive races at Romford, albeit she only managed four wins.

Greyhounds are upgraded after a win to a stronger level of opponents. However, it is often the case that a dog will defy this penalty and go on to win three and sometimes even four, consecutive races.

Such dogs have a habit of repeating this sequence once a win is registered so keep an eye open for Glenvale Evie who won four straight races in September and has now won again at the weekend for the first time since then. Is she off on another winning streak?