IRISH PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK

Despite the tragic injury to Newinn Taylor, Shelbourne Park’s magnificent Winter Festival provided some great racing in this toughest of years with the feature event being the final of the National Puppy Stake.

Formerly known with its ‘Comerford Cakes’ prefix the event has produced a string of champions over the years but Liam Dowling’s 69 pound black female Ballymac Ariel looks as good as any. Although ten spots slower than her semi final win, the 20 month old absolutely oozes class.

Ariel is out of Ballymac Cameo whose previous litter included Deanridge Rapid. Cameo won A2 at Hall Green for Gary Hodson and ran D3 at Towcester. Go figure! The second Shelbourne selection is also a Dowling bred – with Ballymac Kingdom – who has the year’s best time over 750 – clocking the fastest 600 of the year.

Moving onto yet another ‘Ballymac’ and it was Great Name That who clocked the fastest time in the opening round of the Kingdom Derby at Tralee.

Some tracks were running on the slow side, so a 30.09 for the 550 at Galway would easily have slipped under the radar for Paradise Asia. Look out too for littermates Another Dream and Sheriff at Kilkenny and Limerick respectively.

Brendan Maunsell presents the trophy to Alan Bonn after  Ballymac Ariel  won the IGOBF National Puppy 525 Final – pic Imelda Grauer