History was made on Saturday when Pestana became the first greyhound to break 29.00 for 550 yards in Ireland. Both the national and Shelbourne records were held by Tyrur Van Gaal.
It is worth noting that the old clock was equaled by Ballymac Cooper on a brilliant night for Liam Dowling and his Ballymac breeding. Pestana is by Ballymac Best out of Coolavanny Pet (Tullymurry Act-Coolavannny Boyce) who is descended from the Paul Scally’s ‘Cabra’ breeding that so familiar on the winning line at Thurles.
But make no mistake – despite the name Pestana – is 100% ‘Ballymac’ with littermates including Kim Billingham’s Ballymac Cloud, Tom Levers’ Ballymac Suling and Jim Reynolds’ Ballymac Micko. In fact, half of Saturday’s Derby heats were won by Ballymacs.
Kerry rules!!
All of which might have seen at least one other notable performance of the week go unnoticed, a 28.64 by Maireads Brandy at Enniscorthy, the fast over c&d in eight years. There was also a fastest standard run of the year at Kilkenny by puppy Bull Run Norris.
Pestana on his way to a new track record – Imelda Grauer
| CLONMEL | 28.94 | FABULOUS BELLE | (Belles Direction-Beakstown Dazl, Mar 18) |
| CURRAHEEN PARK | 17.74 | JUMEIRAH BRIDGE | (Droopys Jet-Jumeirah Lolls, Sep 18) |
| DRUMBO PARK | 28.89 | HIGHVIEW SUNSET | (Pat C Sabbath-Highview Jayne, Aug 18) |
| DUNDALK | 28.66 | NEWLODGE CEPHAS | (Laughil Blake-Jaxx Party Time, Jul 18) |
| ENNISCORTHY | 28.64 | MAIREADS BRANDY | (Kinloch Brae-Maireads Shauna, May 18) |
| GALWAY | 28.80 | MISS JOSS | (Sparta Maestro-Blundel Spark, Oct 18) |
| KILKENNY | 28.75 | BULL RUN NORRIS | (Bull Run Bolt-Tullowmac Java, Sep 18) |
| LIMERICK | 28.48 | MAGICAL SILAS | (Magical Bale-Gurrane Princess, Dec 18) |
| MULLINGAR | 29.13 | WEE PICKLE JET | (Droopys Jet-Droopys Adelaide, Oct 16) |
| NEWBRIDGE | 28.77 | GALESHILL MICK | (Sh Avatar-Dundrum Pearl, Nov 18) |
| SHELBOURNE PARK | 28.99 | PESTANA | (Ballymac Best-Coolavanny Pet, Apr 18) |
| 29.10 | BALLYMAC COOPER | (Ballymac Matt-Ballymac Scala, Sep 17) | |
| THURLES PARK | 29.23 | DAVIDS EMMA | (Kinloch Brae-Singing Hen, Apr 17) |
| TRALEE | 28.42 | JIRANO JET | (Droopys Jet-Kereight Niamh, Jun 18) |
| WATERFORD | 28.69 | NICETOMEETYOU | (Bull Run Bolt-Silver Dollar, Nov 18) |
| YOUGHAL | 29.35 | WITCHES ATHENS | (Crash-Witches Sofia, Apr 18) |
Ballymac Wild – pic Imelda Grauer
