As the National Coursing Meeting draws near, grown men start counting the days until their annual pilgrimage to Clonmel like children impatiently awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus. Finally the wait is over. The time honoured Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday format was dropped back in 2013 in favour of a weekend meeting with a Monday finish and that successful formula will be the order of the day again at the 90th National Meeting which kicks off at 11:00 today when Kingtone Jessie and Battstreet Judy meet in slips for the first course of the Greyhound and Pet World Oaks.
Sadly the traditional prelude to the coursing classics, the Lady’s International Meeting staged by Clonmel & District Open Coursing Club at Ballyclerihan, which in times past was run off on the Sunday before the National Meeting, had to be cancelled this year as the depredations of poachers had left too few hares on the ground, a worrying trend but perhaps a sign of the times.
Noreen Mc Manus and her son Kieran won the Derby last year in controversial circumstances with With Grim Intent, who was beaten in in the final only to be awarded the top honours after the event when his conqueror Kyle Calvin subsequently failed a drug test. This year runners will face a much more rigorous regime of drug testing under the watchful eye of the newly-formed Testing Monitoring Committee, including random testing of greyhounds on all three days of the meeting, testing of both winning and losing dogs and of dogs withdrawn from all stakes so hopefully there will be no repeat of last year’s scandal. The Mc Manus clan between them they have a record six qualifiers in the Derby this year including the James Mulcahy-trained pair Sharp Edge and Leg It Fast and What a Legacy, Call Up Pal, Funny Alonso and Call Here Alonso who are trained in Athenry Co.Galway by Gerry Holian. If the pundits are to be believed however all six are outsiders, Rathkeale qualifier Leg It Fast being the shortest-priced of the sextet at 20/1 with Boylesports. That said, at Powerstown many’s the thing can happen, with the weather, the slipping, the judging and above all the hares all potentially influencing the outcome. There is many the slip between cup and lip.
Successful in the past with Murty’s Gang, who divided the Derby with his litter brother Cillowen Harbour , in 2002 and Adios Alonso, now a very successful sire, in 2010, Gerry Holian must have a great chance of hitting the jackpot again this year as he trains no fewer than eight of the runners, including long term ante post favourite Crusher’s Oak, currently a 6/1 chance, and Castletowngeoghegan qualifier Blades of Hope, currently available at 12/1.
Another man who surely must have a big say on the final day is Tipperary town’s Michael “Curly” O’Donovan whose four runners include second favourite Timber House, a son of the 2013 Derby winner Thomas the Tank who was recently backed down from 12/1 to 7/1 as well as third favourite Portane All In whose displayed impressive pace when qualifying at Newcastle West. He also has in his care Oaks the fourth favourite in the Oaks, 12/1 chance Boshki who was an eight length winner of her trial stake at Doon. As luck would have it, in the first round she has been drawn against an old adversary Skellig Starwars, who was not far behind her in the second round at Doon. Although famous for winning no fewer than six Waterloo Cups back in the good old bad old days, bad luck has dogged O’Donovan at Clonmel, where his only Irish classic win was in the 1996 Oaks with Bexhill Cottage and where he trained the beaten finalist in the Derby in three successive years. Maybe 2015 will be the year his luck turns.
On known form Timber House might very well meet Denis O’Driscoll’s Abbeydorney qualifier Skellig Harbour in the second round in a course that should be worth travelling a fair few miles to see. Denis is no stranger to success at Powerstown, having won the Derby for the legendary Harry Findlay with Big Fella Thanks in 1999. The O’Driscoll is also represented in the Oaks by outsiders Ballyverry Baby and Daythemusicdied and in ther Champion Stakes by Skellig Sunlight who only qualified at the last minute some two and a half weeks ago.
Another trainer with four representatives at the National Meeting is Abeydorney’s Dan Brassil who trained Lincons Rose to win the Oaks in 1991. He owns Knockgraffon qualifier Feel My Pulse and trains Game Eanna who ran up at Glanworth and Game Mikey, whose victory on that long field at Edenderry does his chances at Powerstown no harm at all. The Brassil kennels also has Avenue Ranger a 21/1 shot in the Kevin Smith Champion Stakes.
Unusually this year Newry maestro Brendan Matthews has no runner in the Derby or the Oaks, all his qualifiers having been withdrawn because of injury. The word on the street is that he has been trying to buy Dungannon qualifier Tullamoy Master from greyhound sagart Fr. Dan Dunne, a rumour that saw the greyhound’s price slashed from 20/1/ to 14/1. The gossip has it that Fr.Dunne would not be parted from the Master, who has drawn a tough first round opponent in Stephen’s Owen, emphatic winner of the Gorey Trial Stake, but you can’t believe all you hear. Brendan has a strong hand in the Champion Stakes where he is represented by Needham Danger and Needham Work. Both are owned by leading bookmaker and Derby sponsor John Boyle of Rostrevor and could quite conceivably finish up dividing the final on Monday afternoon.
Those with a taste for the sentimental cannot fail to be won over by the story of Tobar na Molt, a fawn half-sister to Thomas the Tank and Irish Cup winner Newinn Wonderwon for the price of a €20 ticket in a fundraising raffle run by Listowel Coursing Club and now 8/1 joint favourite to win out after qualifying for the Oaks in some style at Lixnaw beating some good bitches on the way.
At midnight it was 1oC in Clonmel with an icy east-northeast breeze, so my best tip for today is to wrap up and get a couple of hot ones down you. Sláinte!
An Seanachai
