Rioga has lofty reputation to live up to

Micheal O Muircheartaigh obviously has high hopes for his new four-legged friend. Upon retiring from his GAA commentary role last September, the Irish Greyhound Board announced that they would present him with a greyhound and the dog was handed over at a function in Shelbourne Park yesterday afternoon.

The legend from Dingle opted for the name Rioga to add to the Razldazl prefix which the dog already bore as a member of the Dolores Ruth kennel in Rathangan. Rioga, of course, stands for ‘kingly’ and so he already has a lofty reputation to live up to in his racing career.

However, Dolores is very confident that this dog will more than make his mark on the track scene and reported yesterday that: “He is very promising. We have given him a few sprints and he has gone extremely well, he did 17.50 on a slow track at Newbridge and should be running in three to four weeks”.