Champions out to make their mark again

Last year’s champions look to make statements at Monmore Green tonight ahead of the start of both the Ladbrokes Gold Cup and Summer Stayers Classic.

The Gold Cup (480m) and Summer Stayers (630m) begin next Saturday, with each event worth a cool £10,000 to the winner.

Tonight sees the 2025 winner of the Gold Cup, Headford Dane (Maxine Locke, Central Park) and the reigning Summer Stayers champion, Vhagar (Mark Wallis, unattached) in action, aiming to remind everyone of their prowess.

This evening’s card represents the last chance for greyhounds to impress enough to make the 36-dog field for both competitions, and Headford Dane takes on one of Monmore’s shining lights.

Headford Dane – who won both the Puppy Derby and Gold Cup at Monmore in 2025 – goes from trap one in the 8.14pm Ladbrokes.com 480 while home hope Shake The Bottle (Brian Thompson) is in trap two.

Shake The Bottle has a stunning record of seven victories and two seconds from just nine runs and currently boasts three victories on the spin, while Good Teddy (Stuart Tighe, Pelaw), Forgottotellya (Wallis) and Droopys Buck (Craig Morris, Yarmouth) will also provide stiff competition.

Vhagar had a perfect record, triumphing in both the first round, semi-finals and final to clinch the Summer Stayers last year. The February 2023 bitch also won her last outing at Monmore over the 684m trip on the invitational David Lipsey Trophy Night in June.

She is in trap five for the 8.54pm Ladbrokes.com 630 and will most likely be the favourite.In tonight’s other 630m affair, Monmore-based trainers Kim Billingham-Hine and David Page take Onceina Lifetime and Caldera Flow respectively into action on the back of eye-catching successes last weekend.

Armagh Daithi (Wallis), who came third last year’s Gold Cup final, also runs this evening (trap five in the 7.14pm) and is worth keeping an eye on.