It was my birthday yesterday and the family did their best to spoil me with an 8.30 lay-in, an afternoon party and a lovely three course meal, but it was still one of the busier days of the year.
We have 52 dogs due to trial when the tracks re-open from Monday and the work has never slowed up. I heavily rely on my gallop to get the dogs fit and I spent several hours yesterday deep harrowing and plating it and then drenching it with over 2,000 gallons of water.
We have had beautiful weather, and although I had an extra couple of hours in bed, the dogs were already out before it got too warm, and they are also being let out until late into the evening.
We need to be at Shelbourne Park for the first trial at 10am on Monday morning with the first 14 dogs.With all the restrictions, it will be quite labour intensive and we need to allow for four staff.
The Shelbourne trialists include some of the kennel’s more high profile runners including Lenson Bocko, Newinn Taylor, Lenson Austin, Black Parachute, Newinn Session and Rathcoole Fox. I have another 14 scheduled for Clonmel on Tuesday, a dozen at Waterford on Wednesday and a similar amount at Cork on Thursday including litter brothers Lenson Blinder and Slippy Cian.
But there may be some flexibility in all of this because I want to find out what state the tracks are in. Some of them will not have had much work done on them during the break and I am not going to take any risks.
Apart from all the work on the kennels and general maintenance, we have been able to give a lot of treatment to dogs with some quite serious muscle injuries. At this stage they all look sound and it would be such a waste to put them onto tracks that weren’t properly prepared.
Racing is due to restart in Ireland on June 29th. Although there is some talk of bringing that forward by a week, I can’t see that is achievable.
All the dogs will need to trial; those who were qualified at the time of lock-down will not be charged for trials, but some dogs will need at least two trials and I don’t see how there will be enough dogs ready to race by the 22nd.
I thought the Board did well to get the list of big race fixtures published so soon. The Produce Stakes will be the first big one for us, though I think there might to be some flexibility in thinking for any competitions that are age related. If not, there will be a lot of young dogs who will automatically be precluded from puppy races.
Obviously a lot of our plans will have to be rethought. The biggest loss so far appears to be the Con and Anne Kirby Stake, which was a big part of our plans.
As far as the English Derby is concerned, I would still be keen to take part, but until things become clearer, we haven’t a clue how it would work. If it happens, and takes place in July, what kind of travel restrictions will be in place? Will we have to allow to stay in England?
Personally, I would prefer to see it staged later in the year, between the Irish Derby and the Night of Stars. By then, everything should be clear. But we certainly haven’t given up on it. Racing greyhounds probably have a maximum of two years at their peak and we have already lost three months of their racing careers.
