NO BALLYHOO ABOUT YAHOO

If Coolavanny Aunty had been able to accept her own Greyhound of the Year award last month, she would have thanked her owners for buying her, Angela Harrison for training her, kennel staff for looking after her, track staff for preparing the surfaces, at least one vet, maybe some people in the paddock. Last but not least, a special mention for County Waterford breeder Shane O’Gorman for bringing her into the world.

Who?

Shane is a not a familiar name to the British racing media, which is ironic given his closest neighbours and long time friends are the biggest name in Irish breeding, the ‘Droopys boys’, Sean and Michael Dunphy.

Shane has the ‘Yahoo’ prefix and although most of his superstars don’t bear that trademark. . . you will definitely have heard of them!

Shane’s introduction to the longtails was as a youngster walking dogs for neighbour Pat Coffey and his greyhound knowledge soon expanded as he started to help out at of brightest young breeding concerns in the neighbourhood.

The Dunphy family, headed by patriarch John, had already experienced some success when rearing Derby winner Tico, but were gradually becoming known for their own prefix: ‘Droopys’.

Shane said: “When I started there they still had 400 cows and 2,500 pigs but I could see the way it was heading.”

As a teenager, Shane took a couple of years of full employment with the toughest of taskmasters, the legendary Matt O’Donnell. But he grew disillusioned with racing and began working on the building sites while keeping his doggie interest as a hobby.

As the Droopys Kennel expanded, Shane returned to help out Sean and Michael.

It was at that stage that a superstar arrived. English Derby winner Some Picture began an incredibly short but potent stud career at Ballyvalican.

“What a dog he was!” says Shane. “He had everything you would want in a greyhound, the size, the looks, everything. And he still had a bit of the fire in his belly.

“He was still so fresh that we had to put him up the gallop to take the edge off him. I warned Michael to be careful and I could see he didn’t believe me.

“So I said, ‘you catch him this time.’ The dog was mad for the skin at the top of the gallop and nearly took a piece out of Michael.”

(We would ALL have bought tickets to see that – Ed)

Shane freely admits to learning so much in his time at the Droopys Kennel, but is there one lesson above all others?

He said: “It was to do things right. Michael was always clear that you should never cut corners. If you need fence, get the proper stuff and then put it up right. It was a principle he applied to everything.”

Shane and the Dunphys have remained great friends over the years. He has access to their gallop and regularly patronises their stud dogs. They speak regularly and their families meeting up for a meal once a fortnight.

Shane actually got into greyhound rearing almost by accident.

He said: “I left Sean and Michael to work for a drinks company but stayed involved with the dogs. I bought some pups and had them reared by someone else – and to be straight about it, they were badly reared.

“So I decided to look for somewhere to do it for myself and got talking to Liam Fogarty who has a farm at Ballycahane, just about three and a half miles from Sean and Michael, or a ten minute walk if you go through the fields.

“Liam agreed and told me that there were already some kennels that needed a lot of work but I set about it.”

They were tough early days trying to develop and build up the business and Shane recalls some of the UK based owners who supported him on his new 45 acre base.

None is remembered more fondly than former Nottingham promoter Terry Corden.

Shane said: “Terry was an absolute gentleman and made a huge difference when we started out. I whelped Droopys Gloria down for her first litter and at one stage I had 40 pups for him.

“He would phone me and ask about the bill which might be up to £20,000 but the cheque was in the post the same day. That was massive for me at the time.

“At the start he said to me, ‘If the pups get hurt in rearing, I understand. If they aren’t any good, I can live with it. Just don’t ever lie to me.”

Over the years, Terry and family, Rachel and Nathan, were regular visitors to the Ballycahane and the two families became friends.

Shane said: “My mother would make a tart and Terry we would sit around and talk dogs. They were some great times.”

For his part, Shane reared some quality greyhounds for Terry, notably Tynwald Bish (runner-up to Rio Quattro in the 2015 English Derby Final) and Tynwald Baz, who won the 2017 Steel City Cup. Baz is now a house pet with Rachel and husband Mark Bird.

Most people in the greyhound world will remember Terry Corden as a tough, uncompromising character who never ducked a confrontation.

Getting a bollocking from Terry Corden was practically a rite of passage for anyone in greyhound media.

But Shane recalls a different side to Terry Corden’s character that only those close to him were aware of.

He said: “Terry kept in regular touch and one day, when he was very sick, he phoned and asked if I had any young dogs for sale. I had a couple. He asked if they were any good and I had to tell him that I really didn’t know.

“He asked if he could buy them. I told him that I couldn’t sell them because I couldn’t value them. He said ‘I’ll give you £10,000 each for them.’

“I said ‘but they might only be worth £2,000’ to which he replied, ‘well that’s my problem’.

“He died shortly afterwards. The dogs ended up with Laurence Tuffin and they did just turn out to be graders.

“The thing is – he knew and I knew – that he wouldn’t live to see those pups run. But he wanted to give me something and that was the best way that he knew of doing it.

“As I said, he was an absolute gentleman and a great dog man.”

They say that greyhounds change lives and on the face of it, Droopys Lilian seemed an unlikely game changer.

She was basically a good Romford grader whose career highlights were two minor opens wins at Harlow and one at Rye House in the latter part of 1998.

What Lilian did have in her favour was her breeding. She was by Slaneyside Hare (sire of Some Picture) out of a litter sister to Terry Corden and Helen Roche’s English Derby winner Ballinderry Ash.

Shane liked her potential and agreed a deal with trainer Paul Young for a dog pup from her first litter.

That first litter by Spiral Nikita was ‘decent’ and included a useful Irish sprint open racer in Fear No Factor but otherwise little of note. She then produced a litter to Joannestown Cash and a third to Droopys Kewell.

The best of them was a bitch called Droopys Perlena, a 28.87 winner at Waterford when the track was running a lot slower. Again ‘decent’ but not outstanding.

Shane said: “There is a story to Perlena; even though she is a ‘Droopys’, I bred her myself. There was an old guy who was terminally ill but had his heart set on owning a ‘Droopys’ pup. Sean and Michael don’t sell pups and saplings, but I had a bitch from that litter who they agreed could be registered as a ‘Droopys’, and Sean had to sign a form for the ICC.”

At the end of her career, Shane decided to breed with Droopys Perlena and it proved an inspired decision.

Her first litter included Texacloth Puppy Derby winner Outandgoodnight who was sold to England and won the Golden Crest. A litter to Premier Fantasy produced Yahoo Lilly, who in turn threw Kent St.Leger winner and Golden Jacket third, Jimbobjoe.

But the most important litter, whelped in 2007, and sired by Droopys Vieri, would take the kennel in a whole new direction.

It included Yahoo Jamie and Frisby Fontenbleu (see below) plus future brood bitches, Cathys Perlena and Yahoo Stacey.

Stacey, in turn, produced the fabulous Yahoo Perlena. One of the finest bitches in Ireland, she won the Champion Bitch Stake at Youghal, was runner-up in the Munster Oaks and clocked 28.31 at Waterford.

He final race was a 28.04 clocking when second to the great Ballydoyle Honey at Shelbourne Park.

Shane said: “She was probably a better bitch than her form shows. If she had been with someone like Graham Holland or ‘Curly’ (Michael O’Donovan), I am sure they would have found time with her. I trained her myself with over 100 pups here.”

As for Yahoo Perlena’s career as a brood. Just check out the damline guide. . .

Despite all the plans and studying of bloodlines, the part that luck and fate plays in breeding can never be ignored.

Just under eight years ago, Shane happened to bump into one of the most highly respected men in greyhound racing on either side of the Irish Sea, Noel Browne.

Shane knew of the octogenarian Kerryman – everyone did. His knowledge of greyhound racing is unsurpassed. A successful businessman in his own right, he breeds, rears, trains, and wheels and deals in fast hounds.

He is more familiarly known as ‘the Coolavanny man’.

Shane says: “Nobody produces pups like Noel and he is also the nicest guy you could ever meet. I didn’t know him well at the time but asked that if he ever had a bitch that we wanted to lease out I would be interested.

“He told me about a Kinloch Brae bitch that he had at the time and said he would sort it out for me. She was from the Scally’s (Cabra) dam line. Boylesports Hero was all the rage at the time and she looked a great option.

“So nothing happened for about three weeks, so I called him and said, ‘Noel, about that bitch you promised me. . .’

“He had completely forgotten and give her to someone else. He was a bit embarrassed, so I just said, ‘maybe another time’.

“He said ‘no I have the litter sister here. She is in whelp to Tullymurry Act’. He liked her and she’d been retired early with a stifle injury but I was a bit hesitant, not wanting to put him into an awkward position.

“He obviously worked that out and said, ‘if you say no, she’ll be on the transporter anyway’. Sure enough, a few days later I got a call from the transporter saying ‘I’ve a bitch here from Noel Browne for you’.”

History now shows that the bitch that Shane missed out on, went on to produce nothing of note. However the bitch who arrived on the transporter went by the name of Coolavanny Royce.

After she had produced that Tullymurry Act litter, Shane sent a bitch pup back to Noel Browne. Her name was Coolavanny Pet. On the track she ran third in the Kirby Memorial. As a dam for Liam Dowling she produced Pestana, Ballymac Micko and litter sister Ballymac Petsy (dam of Irish Derby finalists Ballymac Finn and Maries Wedding). In her following litter she threw Irish Oaks winner Ballymac Beannie.

As for Royce, that first litter also included Laurels finalist Westway O Neill. She would throw open class in every litter including Skywalker Rafa (Irish Puppy Derby/Tipperary Cup/McCalmont Cup) and Coolavanny Duke.

The remarkable thing about the relationship between Shane and Noel is its fluidity. Most often, Shane will breed the litters and either give or sell pups to Noel who then names them, hence the ‘Coolavanny’ prefix, and very few ‘Yahoos’.

(The 2022 Greyhound of the Year might well have been Yahoo Aunty)

Noel forms an opinion on the valuation of the dogs and will sell on again at racing age. In the case of Coolavanny Aunty, it was for a mere £5,000.

Everything between the two men is based on ‘best judgement and trust’.

Back in October 2020, Noel Browne was in the market for some youngsters and the conversation went along the lines of:

“I have a couple of litters, just two days different in age, at 16 weeks, both by Droopys Sydney.

“What do you think of them?”

“I like them”

“Okay I’ll take six from each litter”

The figures agreed for the 12 youngsters wouldn’t have got anywhere close to the value of just one of the two of the dogs who were shipped off to Kerry that day – Coolavanny Shado and Coolavanny Hoffa.

Shane rates Hoffa as the fastest he has bred. The ante post favourite for last year’s Boylesports Irish Derby had seven wins and a ‘head’ defeat in his last eight races going into the semi finals where he finished fourth.

He hasn’t raced since and has spent the winter at stud but clocked 17.04 in his first spin back at Tralee. (Flashing Willow’s track record is 17.12).

Does Shane resent selling on two such fabulous hounds for a fraction of their value?

Not a bit of it. It was an honest transaction between two friends and they both got lucky – and Shane still has the dams.

But if you think it is always straightforward . . . Shane tells a great story about Yahoo Jamie.

He said: “I started to school him and thought he was a bit special. Terry Corden asked if I would sell him. I said I would be looking for £10,000 sterling for him, and Terry said he would take him.

“He was sent off to Curly who phoned me a couple of weeks later and asked how much I had sold him for. When I told him, he said ‘he’s not worth anywhere near that.’

“I phoned Terry back and told him about the conversation with Michael. I apologised and although he was keen to keep the dog, I gave him his money back.

“Anyway, a few weeks later, Curly was back on the phone saying ‘that dog of yours has really come on, you’d better tell Terry.

“I told him ‘no way, you tell Terry!’.

“Anyway I decided to keep the dog myself and sure enough Curly won the Red Mills Champion Unraced with him. Poor Curly, I don’t think Terry was very impressed.

“ I eventually sold the dog onto England and got £27,000 for him which was good money back then when sterling was so strong.

“He joined Charlie Lister and showed nothing to begin with, like he hadn’t with Curly. Charlie was quite disappointed but then he came to himself and showed he could run. He was a very fast dog but quite unlucky in finals.”

Jamie was beaten in two All England Cups, and an East Anglian Derby and ran third in the Laurels.

Shane also managed to pull of a five figure gamble with litter brother Yahoo Willie at Cork. He then won the Unraced Stake at Clonmel.

Sold to Chris Brooks, he was renamed Frisby Fontenblu and was trained by Harry Crapper to reach a series of Cat One finals including finishing runner-up in the Yorkshire St.Leger.

Shane said: “Between winning the stakes, the gamble at Cork and what I got for the dogs, I was able to buy a house.”

Over the years, Shane has quietly gone about his business as his hounds have become stars on ‘both sides of the water’.

In fact, he has owners from all around the world. They include Aussie Paul Horig, Englishmen Carl Perry and Nick Brereton, for whom he bred the brilliant Geelo Sapphire. Nathan and James Corden, Peter Harnden and Mark Pierrepont are among those with long associations with the kennel.

And there is no shortage of potential buyers waiting for the next one.

So when I ask, ‘what do you have for sale?’ the response is simple . . . . ‘nothing’.

Okay – so what litters are you expecting?

Shane said: “Coolavanney Ella, Celtic Gold and Yahoo Katie have all been mated to Malachi. Yahoo Luna is mated to Newinn Taylor and Yahoo Diva was mated to Ballyhimikin Jet.”

That is some crop. We can expect many more champions to emerge from Ballycahane . . . but without any ballyhoo – or should that be Yahoo?