With this year's competition having already seen some of the biggest shocks in the long history of the blue Riband event, Wimbledon punters were able to have some respite this weekend.

On Friday, locally trained Farloe Reply, a puppy in only its seventh race of his life, blitzed to a brilliant all the way success in heat four.

Trained at Wimbledon by popular handler Patsy Byrne, it has brilliant early speed and could well become the first locally based dog to make it to the final since the brilliant Pearls Girl six years ago.

Friday was also a successful night for popular local boy Vinnie Jones.

His two dogs Smoking Bullet and Smoking Wardy offered the former Wimbledon hero some consolation for his team's relegation troubles when both qualified safely for this Saturday's third round.

Jones, who was at the track to cheer on his dogs, was clearly delighted with their performance, and must now believe he has a real chance of lifting the famous Derby Trophy.

Saturday's heats saw the first jaw-dropping run of the competition so far, when the brilliant Rio Riccardo blasted his way to outright favouritism with an awesome performance in heat 12.

Leading from traps to line, the Harlow-based dog clocked 28.76 seconds for the testing 480 metres, a time good enough to win the Derby in most years,

Once again Wimbledon saw fantastic crowds on both Derby nights, with increases of 20 per cent on previous years.

This must justify the track's decision to reschedule the Derby to May to avoid a clash with the finals of the Euro 2000 football Championships.

Wimbledon General Manager Mike Raper said, "We've been absolutely delighted the move has proven so popular, and I would like to thank the Wimbledon public for offering such fantastic support for our biggest race.

The William Hill Greyhound Derby is the most important and historic greyhound competition in the world, and like us, I think that people in this area recognise that it's an honour and a privilege to be able to stage it here at Wimbledon."