The draw for the 2015 Irish Laurels was made yesterday afternoon at Curraheen Park and, despite concerns of a lack of numbers, management have brought together 66 greyhounds for Saturday night’s opening round.

Late last year, when the movement of the dates for the Laurels was first mooted, there was some talk of the possibility of a bonus being put in place to reward any greyhound which could win the newly arranged Curraheen Classic and go on to land the English Derby.

There was real drama in the final of the Gain Feeds Select Stakes on Saturday night at Waterford, from which the tremendously consistent Southest Suzie emerged victorious for Daniel Frayne of Wexford.

Derby finalist Vulturi, trained by Liam Dowling (inset) took a major step towards another Classic final when winning a very competitive first quarter-final of the Kerry Agribusiness St Leger on Saturday night at Limerick.

There were very few upsets in Saturday’s second round of the Kerry Agribusiness Irish St Leger at Limerick but Droopy Nidge, a runaway winner in a record time in the opening round, had a very different experience in trying to justify odds of 1-5 in heat five as he was forced to pull out all the stops to see off the determined Burgess Oscar.