One of the most unusual lines of form in the year came at Newcastle on June 1. Kinsley grader Deadly Act (Tullymurry Act-Tivoli Maeve, Mar 17), beaten in A2 last time out, starts at 10-1 in a sprint open field that includes Sprinter of the Year Calzaghe Flash, and sets a new track record of 16.63 for the 290 metres. Billy McMeekin’s blue and white dog then suffers one setback after another and has only raced eight times since, winning once.
June 1 Killmacdonagh (Zero Ten-Deercrest Lady, Apr 16) is a 4-1 chance when landing the Irish Oaks for Kieran Lynch. It is the start of an eight race winning sequence that will also see her win the Fennely Memorial, the Dundalk International, and twice break Cork’s 550 yard track record.
June 1 – unraced Melodys Dido, who qualified the previous November, with a 29.43 trial at Tralee, is sent to traps at 1-2f for his debut. He wins by 13 lengths in a time of 28.31. In fact he won the three rounds of the unraced stake by an aggregate of almost 30 lengths. He will become even better known later in the year under his new name – Lenson Bocko.
There are plenty of talking points after the third round of the Star Sports/ARC/LPS Greyhound Derby where Towcester form held up well at Nottingham. The previous year’s finalists Droopys Verve (29.14) and Dorotas Wildcat (29.28) were again in the thick of it, along with Ireland’s Clonbrien Prince (29.19). But apart from the disqualification of Swift Jim, the big talking point concerned an unfortunate dead heat for a qualifying place between King Sheeran and Front Edge. The rules required a run-off or coin toss to qualify. Even though the loser would, theoretically, be invited back into the competition to take the place of Swift Jim, if it turned out to be King Sheeran, he would have been incorrectly seeded. Rather than risk it, GBGB Senior Steward Paul Illingworth decided to apply common sense to fill the loophole in the rules and allowed both dogs through.
2018 Scottish Derby winner Dorotas Woo Hoo finally succumbs to a long standing tendon injury and is retired to stud. But within a fortnight, his even more successful littermate, Dorotas Wildcat leaves the open race stage
GBGB publish their injury and retirement data for 2018. The main points are: *In 2018, there were 426,139 runs; the racing injury rate was 1.16% which is consistent with last year’s figure of 1.15%; 242 dogs suffered racing fatalities – down from 257 last year; this is a fatality rate of 0.06%;* Over the year, 88% of retiring greyhounds were successfully found new homes by their owners, trainers or charities or were retained within the sport by owners, trainers and breeders (up from 87% in 2017); of the remaining 12%, the vast majority of greyhounds either died of natural causes or were put to sleep following vets’ advice for legitimate medical or welfare reasons; *324 dogs were unfortunately put to sleep because no suitable home could be found for them or because there was no viable alternative – such as because of the high cost of medical treatment. Overall this number is fewer than last year but GBGB still considers these to be avoidable and unnecessary deaths and wants to eradicate them from the sport. GBGB trainers rep Peter Harnden is not satisfied and demands even stricter enforcement of the rules.
Ireland is hit by a welfare storm following an RTE Prime Time Investigates programme purporting to show widespread cruelty and abuse in the greyhound industry. The programme leads to mass and long term protests at a number of Irish tracks, principally Shelbourne Park. The Irish Greyhound Board response.
The Paul Hennessy trained Priceless Blake produces a flawless performance to win the Star Sports/ARC/LPS Greyhound Derby Final at Nottingham. The dog who finished three quarters of a length in front of defending champ Dorotas Wildcat in the semi finals, produced his best sectional and winning time of the competition in the final. After an autumn break, Blake returned in the Irish Leger but went out in the semi final stage alongside Clonbrien Prince.
One of the most unusual lines of form in the year came at Newcastle on June 1. Kinsley grader Deadly Act (Tullymurry Act-Tivoli Maeve, Mar 17), beaten in A2 last time out, starts at 10-1 in a sprint open field that includes Sprinter of the Year Calzaghe Flash, and sets a new track record of 16.63 for the 290 metres. Billy McMeekin’s blue and white dog then suffers one setback after another and has only raced eight times since, winning once.
