Tasty card for punters as Shelbourne finally re-opens
The last meeting at the world’s leading greyhound stadium was staged on Saturday, December 18th and the programme on offer tonight will consist of twelve sweepstake finals which were all due to be run on Wednesday, December 22nd.
The finals range from A1 downwards but there are some mighty interesting races and Liam O’Rourke appears to have a great chance of scoring a double with Moyola Beag in the A2 decider and the back to form Ashcarne Jack in the concluding A1 575 decider.
By the way, there will be trials at Shelbourne between 4.30 and 5.30 this evening and no doubt we will see some of the contenders for the forthcoming Tyrur McGuigan Open 575 in action. This event has been put back a week and will now commence on Saturday week with entries closing next Monday.
There will be just two nights racing at Curraheen this week and so it has been decided to stage qualifying trials after racing tomorrow. This will obviously be useful for dogs being aimed at the first major event of the season at the track, the Guinness Trophy which is almost upon us. This 36 runner A1 event will carry a winner’s prize of €3,000 and the first round will be run on Saturday, January 29th.
By the way the Curraheen Park Awards for 2010 will be presented on Saturday night. Owner of the year is Helen Wadsworth with 23 winners and she was six winners ahead of Brendan O’Shea and John O’Brien. Top Public Trainer was John Linehan with 38 winners and he finished ahead of Graham Holland with 32 and Stephen Wadsworth on 24.
The Private Trainer of the year is Tom O’Neill after turning out 22 winners which saw him finish ahead of Bobby Barrett with 19 and Jerry O’Sullivan with 15. Finally, the honour of being Greyhound of the Year fell to the Eddie Fitzgerald and Paddy Pyne owned Castlelyons Patk with eleven wins from just twenty outings. He beat Burgess Star with 10 wins and Paid Paddy with nine.
Curraheen Park welcomes a new sponsor on board this week with Hello France Ltd first time sponsors at the track. Hello France Ltd are a travel company based in Ireland specialising in the best of French and Spanish holidays. They own a large number of cottage style mobile home and are fully bonded and licensed. The Hello France Ltd A2 525 commences on Saturday and will have a winner’s prize of €1,200 and trophy.
Having been postponed from Sunday, the first round of the Open Unraced was run at Clonmel on Tuesday night when the fastest qualifier was Willie O’Connor’s Modges Hawk (Westmead Hawk/ Proper Lu Lu) which came home almost eight lengths ahead of Piercestown Sand in 29.21.
It was a good session for Graham Holland as he registered a double. His first winner was Hovex Minstrel in 29.71 and he landed the final heat with Magellan Lad in 29.47. The times overall may not have been fast as one would have expected but you expect the standard to step up when the second round is run on Sunday evening.
Talking of the Unraced, it is a reminder that we are now getting close to the National Meeting at Clonmel which will be commencing on Monday fortnight. Sponsors Boylesports have issued betting on the Derby and they have three dogs at the top of the list at 10-1, Handball Henry, Derby Pines and Tynwald Stuart.
Their full betting is: 10 Handball Henry, Derby Pines, Tynwald Stuart; 12 Kyle Ranger, Shanavulin Pines, Re Me Martin; 14 Ashmore Lucky, Kilpeacon Ash; 16 Kyle King, Boomtown Hotshot, Central Creator; 20 Jonpamike, Lochbo Chunk, Oola Man, Crushers Hyland; 25 bar.
It is important that the new Limerick Stadium maintains its momentum following the hugely successful launch and a major help will be the first running of the Roche’s Feeds Limerick Oaks. The sponsors Roche’s Feeds are located just down the road from the stadium and it is great to see such local support materialising.
There will be a total prize fund of €15,000 with the winner to receive €6,000 and trophy. It will be a 72 bitch event at €40 entry and the first round will be run on Saturday, February 26th with the final on Saturday, March 26th.
