The latest heats of this year’s Greyhound Derby at Wimbledon proved most informative, with many of the leading ante-post lights still well on course for a date with stardom, on 26th May.

Among them is Eden Star, winner of the Racing Post Juvenile Championship, in February. Barry Draper’s dog was touted as a potential Derby winner early on in his career, and having now won 11 of his 13 starts, it is not hard to see why.

The weather was atrocious during the second round heats, last Saturday night. However, despite the rain and a fierce headwind, Eden Star produced the run of the night, posting a time of 28.64 (going 30 slow), to set up a meeting with the defending champion, and greyhound odds favourite, Taylors Sky, this coming Friday.

The Star is in trap 1, with his big rival next door in the blue jacket. We can anticipate a cracking match between the king and the young pretender.

Two others that caught the eye in the latest heats were Droopys Lorenzo and Blue Artisan. They met in heat 13 and proceeded to slug it out, with the latter taking over from his big rival at halfway, before the Dean Childs-trained favourite showed guts and tenacity to get back up on the outside.

A couple of Irish dogs to make a note of are Tynwald Bolt who hacked up on Friday, and Judicial Ruling, who won in similar fashion on Saturday. Michael O’Donovan, who is hopeful that at least one can make the final, trains both dogs.

Finally, going back to Friday’s heats, the performance of Bubbly Phoenix was breathtaking. Paul Young’s charge scorched home in 28.31, by far the fastest time clocked over the weekend.

He will prove hard to stop from reaching the last six, but my money is on the Barry Draper runner who is still very much rising on the evidence so far.