Preparation for English Derby will be rushed

THE summer staging of the London Olympics and the Euro Championships have had the combined effect of making the early season build-up to the English Derby a rather rushed affair.

The English Derby will commence on Thursday, April 26 with the final scheduled for Saturday, May 26. So, if trainers wish to give their contenders a few preparatory races ora a trial or two around Wimbledon, they will need to be getting their dogs back into action a little earlier than normal.

The early season Irish calendar isn’t exactly crammed with suitable warm-up events for an English Derby challenge.

The obvious events would include the Joe Dunne Puppy 525 (Jan 21-Feb 11) at Shelbourne, the Vetsearch Recharge Kennedy Cup (same dates) at Limerick, the Tote Gold Cup (Feb 18-March 10) at Shelbourne and the McKenna Family Easter Cup (Mar 24-Apr 14) at Shelbourne.

The Easter Cup would hardly be the ideal preparation, the final coming so close to the first round at Wimbledon and giving very little time for a few spins around the track.

The likelihood is that there will be a strong Irish raiding party once again with Dolores Ruth mounting a very strong challenge with her Razldazls Jayfkay, Rioga and Bugatti.

All of these are well accustomed to the Wimbledon circuit and will be trained specifically with Wimbledon in mind.

Other trainers likely to take the Wimbledon trail are Pat Buckley, Fraser Black, Graham Holland, Paul Hennessy and Peter Cronin. But whether John O’Flynn and Milldean Panther make the journey is a major question that will be answered in the next couple of months.

What we can be sure of is that the likes of Razldazl George, Razldazl Will and Sparta Maestro will be taking a more leisurely early season path with the Easter Cup an obvious target, perhaps even the Hegarty 600 before concentrating on the Champion Stakes and the Irish Derby.

The fact that the Laurels and the St Leger will both take place after the Derby this year will make trainers more selective in their running plans for the star trackers.

It’s going to be a mighty long year but, hopefully, from a racing viewpoint, it proves as successful as the one just ending.

Despite the huge economic pressures which have had a massive impact on all facets of Irish life, the greyhound scene survived quite nicely with a huge back-end fillip provided by the Budget and a hectic Christmas party season at the tracks.

! The racing scene will regain momentum next week after a nice little break for those involved on a twelve month basis.

And we will be right into top open competition with the Festival Unraced Stake kicking off at Clonmel on Sunday and then the Tyrur Open 575 at Shelbourne on Saturday week.

The Festival Unraced invariably throws up a number of leading puppies and, who knows, there may even be an English Derby hopeful in there! There are ten first round heats on Sunday and that interesting card should draw a fine crowd to the venue.

There will be a €10,000 prize on offer for the Tyrur Open 575 at Shelbourne and the quality of the recent 575 contests at the venue would suggest this will be real championship fare.

The first of the open events on the southern circuit will be the Vetsearch Recharge International Open 525 at Limerick.

This year’s event will be for 48 open dogs over 525 yards and there will be a winner’s prize of €4,000. Entries close on Tuesday, January 17th with the heats on Saturday 21st.

Meanwhile, Curraheen will stage the first meeting in Ireland since Christmas tonight and will race again tomorrow when the heats of an A3 550 top the bill. Also tomorrow there will be racing at Galway, Waterford, Tralee, Thurles and Longford.

Entries close at Curraheen on Tuesday for a 24 dog €A4 (Bg) 525 which will commence on Saturday week. There will also be a 24 dog €1,000 (A5 (Bg) 525 commencing on Friday 13th.