I can’t really say that I am surprised, though it is very disappointing that Shelbourne only attracted 30 runners for the Easter Cup, including nine of ours.
Last year they had 42 which they split into eight heats including some five-dog, and one four-dog race. This year there are five heats of six, which presumably means that 24 of the 30 runners will go through to the second round.
There are various factors involved though, as I mentioned last week, I think one of the main ones has been the inconsistency in going allowances, particularly running so many races as .20 fast. Since Irish grading is done automatically and on times, there is a bottleneck of dogs backgraded to, or staying in, A1. Some of them should be running in minor open class.
But with the going allowance working in their favour, some owners would be hoping to pick up a ‘penalty kick A1’ – easier said than done of course. Admittedly, they would have been up in class in the Easter Cup, but another half a dozen entries would have made the entry more respectable.
Talking to people at some of the other tracks and you realise that the whole system needs revising. For example, at Limerick there are a lot of moderate dogs being run on Saturday night. It is happening because the racing office are trying to qualify those dogs with three races, before they will be allowed on the Thursday SIS card. But the quality on Saturday night is suffering.
The net result for us at Shelbourne is that there are decent dogs who can’t get a run. Take a dog like Riverside Leo, owned by a good dependable owner like Larry O’Rourke. The dog was unlucky in the Gold Cup and I haven’t been able to get a race for him since. That is three weeks. You can understand why some owners would want to send their dogs over to England to get a race.
Of our runners in the Easter Cup, at least four of them would have benefited from a race before the first round, but I couldn’t get them. Macaroon Cruz is only being run to get hopefully get a back grade. If I try to run him in an A1 over 525, you get owners phoning Limerick whinging ‘that Graham Holland has an open racer up against me and its not fair.’ He is four years old and a 600 yard dog for God’s sake!
As as result, racing manager don’t want the hassle and leave him off. Having said that, he is such a game old boy that he just might qualify for the second round. Ideally though I would much rather be running him in a race that suited him.
The lack of chances to run my best dogs in Ireland is certainly making me think about increasing the number of dogs I take to England for the Derby. They need to run somewhere.
Our first runner Lenson Blinder is not far off his fourth birthday but has come out well from the winter break and looks very fresh. But he is up against Ballymac Anton who won the Gold Cup and is in the form of his life. Anton always looked a bit special but couldn’t match consistency with his ability early in his career. But from the St.Leger onwards he has been a revelation. He isn’t ideally drawn in five, but I think he will have too much quality for these. I would be very disappointed if Blinder didn’t run a decent race behind him though.
We have The Wolfe in the second heat with the dog who he collided with in the Derby third round last year when they were both knocked over, Laughil Josh. I would expect Ballyanne Sim to lead but providing there is no further collision, I fancy Wolfe to pick him up. That Lemon Boris is a nice enough young dog, but this is a move up in class and there is also the issue of Manuka Man who will come across to the inside on the run up.
We have three in the third heat, though Boylesports Xtra has a ping break in him and can go fast to the bend. Hopefully Newinn Hero can get a clear run on his outside. I rate Ballymac Inspeed, though I think this trip is short of his optimum and I fancy Ballydoyle Valor to win this. He came out of the winter break particularly well, did a great sprint, and I don’t agree with the going allowance in his 525 trial. I would expect Macaroon Cruz to be running on in his normally gutsy way at the end. What a cracking old boy he is.
We have three more in the fourth heat. I would expect Murts Boher to lead up on the inside, and hopefully avoid Elite Black, who I think is better suited to the middle. I would expect Clonbrien Prince to be running on well in the later stages. He also wintered well but will benefit from the race. I would hope we could win it with Newinn Lester who should get an absolute solo on the outside. He has a bit of time to find, but was tying up in his last two trials. We have got some work into him at home and he should improve.
Timaru Walker missed his break in the 550 final at Clonmel and then couldn’t decide where he wanted to run. This is a step up in class with an English Derby winner in trap four and an Irish Puppy Derby winner in three. In my opinion the race looks to be at the mercy of Broadstrand Bono.
