SHELBOURNE Park will stage one of the most competitive Oaks finals in recent years tonight.

TRAINER John Linehan and owner Kieran Ryan obviously have serious ambitions in this year's Sporting Press Irish Oaks at Shelbourne.

Champion Irish greyhound trainer Paul Hennessy will branch out tomorrow night when he saddles his first two runners at a horse race meeting.

THE BIG question mark in advance of Saturday’s Sporting Press Irish Oaks final is whether Skywalker Queen can hit top form at just the right moment to win the bitch classic for the second year on the trot.

ONLY twenty four greyhounds remain in the Sporting Press Irish Oaks, but the competition remains wide open following an intriguing second round on Saturday.

LESS than a month after going off favourite for the final of the English Derby, Toomaline Jack will be back at Wimbledon contesting the first round of the Williamhill.com English National.

BANDICOOT TIPOKI produced a wonderful effort to break Irish hearts at Wimbledon on Saturday night, coming from well off the pace to capture the williamhill.com English Derby, a fifth for his veteran handler Charlie Lister.

THE Hegarty Bookmakers 600 dominates the home racing scene this week but there will also be huge interest in the progress of our numerically very strong team which will be on duty in the second round of the Williamhill.com English Derby at Wimbledon.

LEADING owner P.J. Fahy suffered a double blow this week as two of his outstanding trackers have been struck by injury that will force them to miss major engagements.

CLONMEL manager Eddie Anderson was a very pleased man yesterday when he reported that the Red Mills Produce Stakes had filled with 96 entries and all is now in readiness for the great feature which is the highlight of the racing year at the South Tipperary venue.

It really has been the most amazing start to the greyhound year. First we had the freeze-up and no racing at Shelbourne Park and other venues for a full month. Now we have the situation that because of many of our leading dogs lack full fitness, a prestigious event such as the Joe Dunne Memorial Puppy Stake has had to be put back a week in order to attract sufficient entries.