We have two runners in the Laurels Final at Cork, and to be honest, I cannot remember a more open final.
It is absolutely full of quality, and classic winners and I think you could run the race four times and get four different winners. Rockybay Foley has been a tremendous dog at Cork with a record to match. But at four and a bit, you wonder whether he is quite as good as he was a year ago.
Derby winner Ballyanne Sim is a year younger and still in great form. Grangeview Ten has been outstanding throughout the year, and Doona Buck has enough fast times to make him worthy of the final.
As for our two, I am quite happy with the draw. Clona Blaze will probably take a straight line to the bend, Newinn Lester will probably step out.
Although a lot of people won’t agree, I think Cork is a real front runners track. Miss your break and you are gone. We have won the Laurels four times, and three of those winners have really been sprinters. It is a short backstraight and hard for dogs to come from behind. I would expect whoever is in front at the second bend to win it.
Limerick is next on the agenda and the St.Leger. We have a number of dogs who are suited to the 550 trip and I would expect to be entering at least 10, possibly more.
In terms of a racing circuit, Limerick is tricker than Shelbourne with a tough first bend. It is wide enough, but the dogs seem to funnel into quite a narrow channel at the bend.
I don’t know why it happens, though I do have a theory. It appears to me that there is a downhill run to the first bend and the some dogs struggle to keep their balance. But it is always a good running surface.
In general the racing surfaces in Ireland are very good. A lot of the track staff are dog men themselves and they take a great deal of pride, knowing what is at stake.
The editor has asked me to list my favourite three circuits and they would probably be 1) Shelbourne Park, 2) Cork, 3) Clonmel. The latter is my local so I am a bit biased but I would still rate the place even if it wasn’t.
We are looking forward to next year and I have been asked to nominate a couple of young dogs for the future.
I have two in mind, Fahys Storm (Superior Product-Aclamon Fab, Nov 17) and Newinn Taylor (Droopys Buick-Newinn Expert, May 18). Storm has had one race, Taylor has qualified with an 18.50 sprint at Shelbourne.
But qualifying youngsters has become much harder and I am strugging to get a race for Storm. The problem comes due to a change in the rules of qualifying. Basically, even an ordinary sprint time, something that would be S2/S3 class, would mean that the pup has to go straight into open class company. Bear in mind, that he may not even stay 525 yards at that stage, so it can give a false impression of ability.
Now I accept that it is trainers like me that are the worst affected because an owner isn’t going to pay to put an average dog with me. I can see the aim is to look after the small guy, which is admirable. But what it does do, is create a good reason for a trainer to slow the pup up for qualifying.
Now that is something that I would never want to do. Every young dog should be doing its best. But the rules should never give a trainer a reason to cheat.
It isn’t the only rule that is wrong. The rules on backgrading are an encouragement to cheat. I remember having a real nice genuine dog in the kennel called Hawaii Kinsale. He wasn’t top class dog but tried his heart out and always ran his time. I think he ran 24 races in good company, never winning, but never finishing last.
The only way to get downgraded was to stop him which I wasn’t prepared to do. So in the end, I suggested to his owner Helen O’Dwyer that the only solution was to retire him.
I was interested to see ARC take over the two GRA tracks this week. The GRA have done a great disservice to the industry in recent years in many ways.
To name just one, I hate how they have degraded some great races with poor prize money, including the Laurels and the St.Leger. At the moment, the Scurry is taking place at Belle Vue. It is a former classic, traditionally for dogs who didn’t see out the Derby distance. Hence it was at Clapton 400yds, Slough 442m and then Catford 385m.
Back in 1991, the winner collected £6,000, which would be worth nearly £13,000 now. Yet in recent years, the first prize has been £2,500. If they are not prepared to pay prize money worthy of the prestige and history of the race, they shouldn’t call it the Scurry.
Bringing the 2020 English Derby final forward to May will bring some issues for Irish trainers as there are potential clashes with the Easter Cup and the Kirby Memorial which attracts the best young dogs in Ireland.
It could affect the number of entries from this side of the water, though for me the biggest priority would be to see something done about the starting traps. Whatever the merits of what the track already have, it would encourage more Irish dogs to make the journey if the traps were the same as those that the dogs are familiar with in Ireland.
