Druids Goes Quickest Again as Trainer Eyes More Romford Gold

Patrick Janssens is eyeing a fourth Golden Sprint title in five years at Romford on Friday after Druids Say Go again set the fastest time in the semi-finals of the Coral-backed Category One event at the Essex venue.

Lining up as the red-hot favorite in the second semi-final after setting the fastest time in the heats, Druids Say Go needed to out-trap market rival Romeo Cypher to seal the all-important lead in the 400m contest - and made no mistake at lid-rise.

Quickly away as the local hope started moderately, the 4-5 shot was soon in charge and never looked in danger as she came home three lengths clear of Supa Nova, who secured another shot at a major Romford title for Paul Burr by qualifying in second.

Druids Say Go now aims to follow Janssens-trained Golden Sprint winners Goldies Hoddle (2020), Bockos Jon Jo (2021), and Droopys Good (2023) in Friday’s £10,000-to-the-winner decider - and has been installed a red-hot favorite to do so.

Bombout Bullet trapped in front in the first semi-final and the Arc National Sprint winner set a ferocious pace on the step up in distance. However, as he tired round the final bends, Richard Rees’s Kila Detail pounced and went on to score.

The Hove raider, who ran a cracking race considering he was bumped at the first bend, stayed on much the stronger to swoop on the run for home for a near-two lengths success over Kevin Procter’s Front Alice, who qualified in second, in 24.30sec.

The final two places in Friday’s final went to Paul Young’s Aero Convey and Katie O’Flaherty’s Seomra Paws.

The former showed superb all-round pace to pace up handily in the third semi-final and rally after first-bend crowding to hit the front rounding the final turns for a half-length win over Seomra Paws in a decent 24.12sec.