Record holder chasing more Monmore Green success
A sensational track record holder begins the defence of his crown as two major events begin at Monmore Green tonight.
Mongys Wild, trained by Mark Wallis and owned by the MWD Partnership, remarkably broke the 684m track record twice on his way to winning the £20,000 Golden Jacket at the Wolverhampton circuit last year.
He is in action this evening as the 2026 edition gets under way alongside another prestigious Category One competition, the Winter Derby which takes place over the standard 480m trip and is worth £10,000 to the winner.
There are six heats in each competition tonight, with three greyhounds progressing from each race into next weekend’s semi-finals.
Mongys Wild – who clocked a super-fast 40.42secs in the 2025 final after managing 40.54secs in the semis – goes from trap three in the fourth heat of the Golden Jacket (9.14pm), with the bookmakers having him as the 11/10 favourite to win the whole thing come February 21.
The Winter Derby, meanwhile, looks to be more open, with Gary The Arb (Belinda Green, Hove), Headford Dane (Maxine Locke, Romford), Santas Amigo (David Mullins, Romford) and Zenith Tanju (James Fenwick, Newcastle) the joint ante-post favourites at 8/1.
Monmore racing manager Tony Williamson said: “The quality seen in trials and our prep races over recent weeks has been exceptional.
“These double headers work well and staging two massive finals such as the Winter Derby and Golden Jacket on February 21 makes it one of the biggest nights of the year at Monmore.
“It’s a celebration of both the fastest four-bend performers and top-class stayers, and moving the Golden Jacket from May to February has given us the chance to mirror what we do in the summer with having the Summer Stayers Classic and Gold Cup finals on the same night. And, of course, we still have the Puppy Derby to come here in the last two weeks of March.
“We had more than 60 entries for the Winter Derby and 38 for the Golden Jacket. We would like to wish the very best of luck to all involved in these two competitions and offer our commiserations to those who didn’t make it. We can’t wait to see who the Winter Derby and Golden Jacket champions will be this year.”
Mongys Wild does still face some stiff competition for this year’s Golden Jacket crown, with Sean Parker (Sheffield) star Droopys Flare expected to go deep into the event while Vhagar (Wallis) was the winner of Monmore’s 630m Summer Stayers Classic last August.
Headford Dane looks to make it a terrific Monmore treble in the Winter Derby having clinched both the Puppy Derby and Gold Cup titles last year.
