I’m looking forward to Saturday’s final of the Dandelion & Nightclub Easter Cup Final at Shelbourne.
I’m lucky enough to have three in it, Sidarian Blaze, Coran Sky and Gaytime Hawk drawn in traps two, three and four.
There is little between them, all are in great order, and I couldn’t be happier with them.
Slippery Fred, in one, is the favourite, which takes the pressure off, but I would hope we could give him a run for the money.
Of my three, I would narrowly edge towards Sidarian Blaze, simply on the draw. Coran Sky is likely to come out and move to his right, which might hamper my other dog.
Then again, Sky could clear the four and lead all the way. What would I know?
Shelbourne is my favourite track. It is a pig of a journey but I always get treated fairly there.
If I enter seven or eight dogs, Declan Carey (racing manager) will get most of them on.
That isn’t always the case elsewhere. I might enter eight dogs at some tracks and only get one on, and then they wonder why I don’t enter again the next week.
Its not about me, its about owners going another week, and another kennel bill without a runner.
Also, because the standard of runner is so strong at Shelbourne, even midweek, I can usually get a runner with a chance.
I don’t like to moan, but sometimes it feels as though some tracks treat all my runners like Derby winners. If I have an A4 dog, they will try to find the best possible A4 field to run them against. Particularly dogs open to big improvement.
It is the system that is wrong. Some years ago, the IGB decided to set-up an automated grading system, and in my opinion, it is badly flawed.
All my dogs are trying their hardest every time they go to traps. Believe it or not, but it is the truth.
The net result is that if you continue to run well in your grade, but not winning, you never get downgraded.
A good example is a lovely dog I have in the kennel called Hawaii Kinsale. He was a Derby dog a couple of years ago but time is not on his side.
Now, every time I run him, he has to run in open class against better dogs. The only way that I could get a downgrade would be to cheat with him and get him beat for a few races.
Of course it suits the racing managers to have a decent class dog to make up the numbers and I am always being asked to run him in their top 575s.
The dog deserves better, and his owner Helen O’Dwyer, and I discussed it and decided he would be better off retired, so that is what we are doing.
Once you have reached your grade, it is a pointless exercise carrying on. You will inevitably be running against dogs who have been back graded or unexposed younger dogs, who are better class.
As a result, I tell the owners to sell the dogs on to England and we will start again.
I still have runners in the Con Kirby and Cork Oaks, though the fastest winner Rockburst Mills has had to be withdrawn with a stress fracture of the fibia. It shouldn’t be too serious providing we are patient.
The owners of Juvenile Classic winner Sidarian Vega are still deciding on their next move.
Personally, I only ever plan one event at a time. If I get interviewed after winning a race and get asked what are our future plans, I usually reply, ‘take the dog home and feed him’.
That’s not being clever, I have just learned not to try to plan too far ahead because this usually get more complicated along the way.
Vega is ‘my mate’, an absolutely lovely dog with perfect manners, and potentially as good as I have had.
The problem with young puppies is always the same though. How will they perform against experienced top class dogs when they don’t get things their own way?
I am really hopeful that Vega will adapt because of the type of dog he is. He can lead, come from the back, go around dogs or come through on the rail.
Being honest, I got him completely wrong when he first came into the kennel.
One of his owners, Ian McGinnis, said he had heard about a nice young dog and he was sold after one handslip for a decent figure.
He came to me, ‘in his puppy clothes’ and did 16.50 on his first look around Clonmel.
My first thought was ‘Yeah, right – he’s been fully schooled’. He couldn’t possibly do a run like that.
I went on holiday and left instructions for him to have an unofficial 525 at Clonmel. I got the phone call to say he had done 29.05. I was stunned and realised he was the real deal after all.
I still haven’t finalised my runners for Wimbledon. I don’t mind the track, but I don’t like the structure of the English Derby.
There are two problems. The gaps between racing and the run to the pick-up. If you have a genuine dog that chases all the way to the drop, you are asking him to run three 700 yard races in a week.
It is the ideal track for a dog like Westmead Hawk (sire of Sidarian Vega).
He stayed 700 yards, had a brilliant racing brain and was probably only warming up by the time he got to the final.
But you don’t get many like The Hawk!
We all took a bit of stick from my son Timmy when Ireland beat England in the rugby. We might get a bit back if England come out on top in the Six Nations at the weekend. When all is said and done though, if we won the Easter Cup, I wouldn’t give a damn who won the rugby
