Race of Champions draw put back

THE draw for the Paddy O’Sullivan Race of Champions at Tralee, due to be made yesterday, has been put back to today in a bid for more entries.

It highlights the problems of getting entries for open events at this stage of the year with so many valuable competitions overlapping.

The Irish Greyhound Board and RTÉ have agreed to stream three live webcasts from Harold’s Cross, Cork and Limerick over the coming months. The first ever live webcast was broadcast from Harold’s Cross last year and the Gain Feeds Corn Cuchulainn will again open this year’s schedule on Friday, July 15.

The second of the webcasts will be on Saturday, July 23 from Limerick featuring the final of the Red Mills All-Ireland A3 Series.

The third webcast will be on Saturday, October 22 when the Hennerty Sales Irish Laurels final will be relayed live from Curraheen Park.

The final of the Sporting Press Irish Oaks will be shown live on Sky Sports on Saturday, June 25as part of the programme being relayed from Drumbo Park where the Northern Ireland Derby will be the feature race.

Then on Saturday, July 2 the final of the Kerry Agribusiness Irish St Leger at Limerick will be shown on RTÉ TV and the other live RTE programme will be the Ladbrokes.com Irish Derby final on Saturday, September 10.

There will be just five runners in the last quarter final of the Sporting Press Irish Oaks at Shelbourne on Saturday following the withdrawal of the early pacer Montblanc.

The Davy Reynolds trained daughter of Westmead Hawk and Airport Boss was due to run from the inside trap in the heat which has ante-post favourite Mozzletoff in the line-up, as well as Rusty Streak, Inshaarla, Lemon Velvet and Highview Horizon.