We’ve had some very good nights at Shelbourne Park but Saturday was a night we won’t forget in a hurry with eight winners and the ‘shortest of short head’ seconds.
We won five heats of the Easter Cup with Slippy Cian marginally the quickest in 29.47. He is one of the more forward runners at the moment and his time was back on his win the previous Saturday. But I was delighted with the run after he missed his break and then ran so wide off the last bend.
Cian’s brother Lenson Blinder pleased me for different reasons. We are a bit behind in preparation. In previous years we have run in the Gold Cup and it has meant getting the dogs ready a bit too soon.
The tracks haven’t always been ideal, either frozen or heavily salted, and they have picked up unnecessary injuries from which some have never recovered. Blinder was among those who really needed the face as he showed in the latter stages.
Owner Eric Cantillon wanted see Nice Charmer run when he came over for the coursing, but I could only get him in an open sprint. He was a cracking dog for us last year who ran in plenty of big races but he was still short of a run. So I was delighted that he held on in 29.56 in what was his first four-bend run in a couple of months.
The shine was taken off the win of Clona Blaze by a bad injury to Brownstown Tango who is a lovely little bitch but broke a wrist at the third bend. The connections are nice people and I felt very sorry for them. Blaze did everything you would expect of a class greyhound.
I saw Wolfe running at Clonmel and approached Pat Maloney to see if he could be bought. The answer was ‘no’ but Pat asked if I would train the dog. What a find he has turned out to be. He is still a very young dog who is still learning but the pace and determination he showed to lead at the first bend was terrific to see. I expect him to go well from red in the second round.
Although Clonbrien Prince was beaten in his third heat, how could you be disappointed in the run, given the quality of the winner, Magical Bale, and the performance itself?
I think Shelbourne deserve great credit for the work they have done on the running surface, it is a significant improvement.
The drainage has been back for a long time. The track has been firm in some places and boggy in others. There also developed a couple of ‘speed humps’, one just off the second bend and anther halfway along the backstraight where people come onto the track.
Both have now gone and the banking a the third bend is back.
For various reasons, we didn’t enter anything for the Juvenile Classic at Tralee.
I had two youngsters in mind, but we have had a bit of sickness in the kennel and they weren’t really forward enough.
So we took them to Clonmel on Friday for an unraced stake and they both won: Tree Top Danny (29.18) and Adamant Billy (29.25).
I have been quite surprised by the recent IGB change of rules which meant that all novices could be drawn against each other, rather than being streamed into different classes
It doesn’t affect me at all, in fact quite the opposite. In general, if I have a youngster, I expect to be put up against the better quality opposition. The theory being, ‘why would someone pay to put a slow dog in with Graham Holland?’
Now, theoretically, my best pups could be running against dogs they might beat a distance. It doesn’t just affect me, there will be many more races with decent quality youngsters winning by a long distance and those down the field not even recording a time.
Nobody benefits. You could never back them for decent money anyway.
I would actually rather have my pups running against slightly more experienced dogs. You get six absolute novices drawn together and half the field don’t have a clue where they want to run.
We have really cut back on the number of pups that we rear to concentrate on the racing side but we have one litter that are just taking my breath away.
They are by Sonic out of Slippy Thelma and they are the best looking litter of pups I have seen in years. Nick Savva would have been proud of them.
I only hope to God that they can run as well as they look.
And if they can’t. . . we are going to absolutely clean up at dog shows.
