by RISING BRANDY out of EL NADA whelped 7.7.2020
Race videos are listed at the bottom of this page
Say hello to PERFECTO LEVI now known as NODUFF JOKER. ‘Rum’ was purchased out of the Sheffield sales on 19th January after winning his 480m trial in 28.26. At eighteen months old we expected him to improve a lot for race experience and maturity. He was unraced at the time of purchase and had just two trials in Ireland.
Sire Rising Brandy won the Puppy Derby at Monmore in 2018 in a remarkable 27.82 and hopefully his son would run the track just as well! Rising Brandy also won several opens at Towcester before travelling to Ireland for the Irish Derby and getting injured at Shelbourne Park.
Rum found racing difficult in his early career – something we didn’t expect given the manner of his trial success at Sheffield. He looked completely lost in his A6 debut and had to be returned for another trial. In two subsequent A7s he was very slow away and had two troubled passages. He’s managed a 29.58 but that was still well adrift of the 29.13 he recorded in trials. He needed a much better break to show what he was capable of.
In fact it was being dropped to A8 for his fifth race that made the difference. Bumped out of the traps, Rum showed good pace and railed nicely to put himself in contention out of the second bend then just ran away from them to win by 4.5 lengths and nearly break the 29 second barrier! If he could learn to trap better the sky would be the limit.
He didn’t break that barrier but, as of 20.5.22, he had won three from four and was second in the other! Rum was staying on very strongly as evidenced by his third of those wins from behind by 4.75 lengths and looked every inch a stayer in the making.
That progress then rather abruptly come to a halt and sent the kennel looking into why. Rum trialled over six bends as that was seemingly ideally suited to his running style but he was a bit one-paced. A return to A6 didn’t show the expected improvement for the longer outing and he seemed a little lethargic. Maybe he really didn’t like the very hot weather. He won his A6 in July, finishing very strongly again but that was to prove his last victory. Four lacklustre runs followed after the last of which he came home injured.
We persevered for a very long time with rehabilitation and the occasional gallop but just couldn’t get him back into the shape needed for a formal trial, let alone race and finally gave up in February 2023. It was a shame for Rum who never really showed how good he could have been. He is a strong dog who will make a great pet via GR Fife and have a long and happy retirement.
Noduff Joker’s race videos in date order