We have the final everyone wanted to see for the £2,500 John Smith’s Kent St Leger on Saturday night.

Such is the prestige of the race, a live camera crew will be here from the Racing Post Greyhound TV channel. The racing can be viewed live on Sky 212 or Freesat 402.

There were no surprises in the semi-finals last weekend.

Our top dog, Pony Bride, went through and can be expected to give a good account of himself – he may even go to traps as favourite.

The dog won his semi-final in 45.17sec over the 714m distance. Given the other winners came home in 45.34 and 45.28, we look like having a close-run contest.

The top visiting greyhounds in the shape of Blonde Regan, Freedom Cache, Boherna Bridge and Ayamzalad all qualified and join Pony Bride together with Airforce General.

Fortunately, all six runners look to have a good draw, with Airforce General and Boherna Bridge running from traps one and two.

Ayamzalad has trap three and Pony Bride four, with Freedom Cache in five and Blonde Regan in six.

While this race is over two complete circuits, which in theory gives dogs a chance to improve their positions, my opinion, as always, is that you need to lead early.

At this level, many dogs do all of their running trying to get level with the leader and then have nothing left in the tank. So who will take command when the traps open?

Pony Bride has won from traps three and five but four seems to give him problems and the formbook shows he has yet to win from there.

Nonetheless, he is on the inside of two of his three main rivals and will certainly need to trap out smartly.

Having said that, he came from fifth last weekend to power his way home and just look at those times after the first circuit. He went round in 23.72, while the other semi-final winners, Freedom Cache and Blonde Regan, managed 23.51 and 23.19 respectively but crossed the line a circuit later in a slower win time.

This is testament to the strength of Pony Bride, who came third in the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket last February and, as a result, was placed with Crayford trainer Steve Gammon given how well he ran the track.

Since then, he has been the one to beat here at Crayford, so it is a home win for me.