There are many tales of owners ‘almost’ buying a dog who went on to be a superstar. But ‘nearly’ applies to the most successful of breeders too.
2022 British bred litters registered by July 1
While Nick Savva is the most successful British breeder of all time, thanks to Mega Delight and some amazing Westmead dams, at one stage he also had Little Diamond in the kennel as a racer. Connections decided to sell her on, and without her, (under a re-registered Irish name of Little Diamond II), there would be no Droopys Scolari (dam), Drooppys Maldini (dam) or Droopys Jet (grand dam) to name but three.
Kevin Hutton is the owner of the UK’s current leading open race dam, Forest Natalee (see below), has had his own similar experiences.
They include a bitch who only raced seven times for him, Hail Cleopatra (Skywalker Puma-La Linea).
Cleopatra is now the acclaimed dam of two of Pat Buckley’s most exciting Irish youngsters, Tullig Cyrname and Tullig Raven (Droopys Sydney-Hail Cleopatra, Sep 20).
Cyrname is unbeaten in seven races including the Lee Strand 550 at Tralee. Raven equalled the Kerry track’s 525 yard clock on debut last week.
Hail Cleoptra had seven races for Kevin which included an A1 win at Monmore, and an open win at Central Park in 29.00 (calc).
Kevin said: “Cleopatra was owned by my dad but was bought on the understanding that she would go back to Morty Ahern for breeding. She was a really nice bitch, very fast. On the night she won the A1 at Monmore, she lost several lengths by checking at the trip but was still good enough to win. Unfortunately, she badly damaged a wrist soon afterwards.
“We could have persevered with her, but decided to send her back to Morty and we had a dog out of the first litter who was an open race winner for us. Would we have bred with her if we hadn’t agreed to send her back? I don’t know, we do have a few decent bitches about the place but I am really delighted for Morty; they are a lovely family and deserve their success.”
Also, possibly forgotten is the Jet Stream Lynx – the dam of Susie Sapphire – was also with Kevin prior to joining Carol Grasso and then returning to the Comerford family for breeding.
Kevin said: “She was a very good bitch. To memory, I think she was fought in the semi finals of the Leger*. It’s hard to remember now. But that deal was always that she would return to her breeders too.”
(*There was no official comment of a runner being disqualified in the 2017 semi final where Lynx led “second to sixth” and was “crowded fifth and sixth”. She finished fourth beaten half a length for a place in the final. Also in the semi was Kevin Boon’s Shaneboy Bowie. His comment was “crowded fifth and sixth”. Bowie had been marked ‘awkward’ earlier in his career at Romford and two races after the Leger semi was marked ‘awkward’ at Crayford. He immediately went over hurdles, and in his first race back on the flat and was disqualified.)
As for the reigning dam of the year . . . seven of her Droopys Sydney were sent to John Mullins for rearing last week.
Kevin said: “Hopefully we will see them in a year’s time. The other three went to Tom Ace and Claire Connelly, who are long time owners with us. They had a single pup born and so it worked out well for the others to go to them.”
The 2021 open race sires runner-up Droopys Sydney is already well clear in the 2022 results and is confidently predicted to dominate for at least the next three to four years. Seemingly handicapped by a racing career of a single outing – a 28.45 win win at Cork – the ten year old threw Bubbly Bluebird in his first ever litter and hasn’t looked back.
Huge thanks to Steve Cale (greyhoundstats.co.uk)
Open race sires table – compiled by Steve Cale
Open race dam’s table – compiled by Steve Cale
