IT was not a case of ‘alright on the night’ for favourite Ministry May May in Saturday’s RD Racing Trafalgar Cup showdown.

Everything that could have gone wrong did just that for Haley Keightley’s black bitch.

The normal rocket start deserted her at a vital time as she stumbled out of the boxes and didn’t do her chances any good when cannoning into the rails at the first bend.

Meanwhile, Chris Allsopp’s Smart Bid, who posted 3.67 seconds at the sectional, led Markeys Dragon, with eventual winner Guinness Dusty biding his time in third.

Hove raider Dusty, trained by Seamus Cahill, started to wind up at the final bend and in a stirring finish got up to beat Smart Bid by a head, even though the latter’s connections felt he had held on.

It was a great climax to a good night’s racing watched by a large crowd, with the locals failing to win any of the supporting opens.

Sponsor Richard Dunn, of RD Racing, was delighted with the outcome and when asked if he won enough to sponsor again next year, he replied “More than enough”.

Meanwhile, the stewards had their nerves tested just before the final as the kennelhand of one of the runners threw the greyhound’s overcoat down when loading his runner in the traps.

Unknown to him, as he picked it up he missed the trip switch by millimetres. If he had caught, it the runners would have charged out of the traps with no hare to chase.

Racing manager Gary Baiden added: “You have to feel sorry for a group of people who we presume to be the syndicate owning the second place greyhound because of their celebrations on the run-in, thinking they had won.

“They must have taken their eye of the ball as the Cahill pup pipped them at the photo finish.

“The close finish didn’t fool the commentator who called it right and the bookmakers who were already paying on the right result.”

Oxford’s next big race is the Pall Mall in June, but before then it will be staging open races on Thursday nights.