Coursing: through the veins and in their blood

Clonmel is coursing’s Mecca, an annual pilgrimage repeated over the three-day early spring National Coursing Meet at Powerstown Racecourse, but it’s a restricted affair.

The Derby, the highlight of the meet, is confined to the best of the male pups, the Oaks to the cream of bitch pups, while you also have an all-age Champion Dog Stakes and an all-age Champion Bitch Stakes.

The Irish Cup, however, the first round of which started yesterday at Limerick Racecourse in Patrickswell, is where it all comes together; dogs, bitches, all age and every age — the JP McManus Irish Cup is open to the lot. In the knowledge that it would take an exceptional specimen to win the Irish Cup most bitch owners give it a miss, choose instead the less-lucrative Gleeson Bitch Stakes, which begins today, but the option is always there.