HARVEY NOT A FIRST JUVENILE WINNER FOR CHRIS

Ian Fortune

When Faypoint Harvey raced to a brilliant victory in the TIME Greyhound Nutrition Juvenile at Towcester on Sunday afternoon, it introduced him to the British racing public as a potential English Derby champion.

The manner in which he handled the circuit on what was his first look around was hugely impressive and would have given the Flanagan family, who have long been responsible for the ‘Faypoint’ prefix a great sense of satisfaction.

But little did this scribe know that it wasn’t their first taste of success in the Juvenile Championship. The valuable invitation was run first in 1957, becoming ‘The Juvenile’ in 1964, and was one of the feature races run at the old Plough Lane, Wimbledon, for almost sixty years.

And what of the Flanagan family history in the competition? Well, Chris Flanagan was kind enough to send on a couple of pics to highlight their previous victory in the invitation back in 1981 with a hugely strong, Kris Is Back.

Trained by Tom Johnston Jr, the son of All Wit obliged at odds of 9-2 in 28.16 for the then 460m trip. Incidentally, the dam of Kris Is Back was Faypoint Flyer, which goes to explain where the prefix actually came from.

Whatever Faypoint Harvey goes onto achieve in his future career, it’s clear he stirred up some great memories for Chris and Patricia Flanagan. Who knows, he could go on to even greater things in the near future. He certainly has the talent to do so.     

Below you can see a picture of Kris Is Back, while the trophy in question is for the 1981 Sporting Life Juvenile Championship, clearly still taking pride of place in the Flanagan household.