Pint Sized Santas Wow Newcastle Race Goers

Racegoers at Newcastle Greyhound Stadium could have been forgiven for thinking they had hit the Christmas spirit just a little too early this year, when a handful of pint-sized ponies replaced the usual canine contenders in tearing round the track on Tuesday night.

Newcastle Stadium hosted the innaugral Santa Shetland Derby to add to the Christmas spirit of a terrific night of greyhound racing, and whilst the main event of the evening, the £8000 Final of the William Hill All England Cup, was won by the locally bred greyhound Geordie Parker, undoubtedly, it was the knee-high Santa Shetland Derby which brought the biggest cheer of the night from the packed terraces.

Having hoofed it up from their previous engagement at London's Olympia horse show over the weekend, it was Knix Grand Bobby-Jo and 9 yr old Christy Short who showed her rivals a clean pair of heels to win the innaugral running of the race at the North-East venue, and complete a quick-fire double having triumphed in London on Saturday night.

Shown live on Sky Sports TV, the race raised money for the children of Great Ormond Street Hospital having been generously sponsored for the charity by local companies Aspers Casino, Logbook Loans, Nortile and Dransfield, bringing the total raised by these diminuitive racers to over £300,000 in the last ten years.

What the Shetland ponies lacked in size compared to their full-sized racehorse relatives, they made up for in fighting spirit and wowed the terraces who turned out to watch Geordie Parker, route his rivals and earn a quote of 20/1 from William Hill to lift the biggest prize of all, The Greyhound Derby next July.