I reckon the bookies have the odds about right for tonight with Slippery Fred favourite to win the Best Car Parks Gold Cup at Shelbourne Park.
Fred is a very fast greyhound and has been favoured by the draw. My two are drawn in three and four, and the wrong way around. I would have preferred Proud Graham on the outside instead of in white and Sidarian Vega is a bang railer drawn in four. It looks a very evenly matched race and at least three or four of the runners could have started favourite if they had drawn red.
I was very pleased with the runners at Tralee on Friday. I was disappointed that we had to withdraw Sidarian Eska who was sore, but Nice Manner ran particularly well given he is a railer who was drawn in six and i wasn’t sure he would get a clear run. I was also pleased with Silverhill Pat. He was caught by Paul Hennessy’s dog (Double Oh Seven) who looks as though he will be very useful over 575 yards in time.
My dog checked at a spot off the last bend. There is a point where the hare is hidden from the dogs by the grass for a split second near the last bend and I have raised it with the management in the past. This dog did the same thing at the same place in the previous round and I have had a dog disqualified for fighting in the same place.
Silverhill Pat has a much better draw in the semis and I would expect him to go better. In fact, we had sickness in the kennel when we were on holiday and I think quite a few of the dogs are open to improvement.
