ICC president Brian Divilly: Coursing is on a high
ICC president Brian Divilly agrees that coursing is in a good place as we head further into 2017.
“Coursing is on a high,” he says, pointing out that the number of coursing pups being bred has never been greater, while attendances at this year’s national meeting were reckoned to be up about 1,000 on last year over the three days.
“The breeding of coursing dogs remained steady right through the recession,” he said.
“Coursing breeding is up every year. Attendances are up. Even the local meetings you have around, there’s something special there.”
The three-day meeting was “a fantastic success,” he adds.
For three decades, veteran bookmaker Liam Brassil from Tralee has been returning to Clonmel every winter for the national meeting.
Don’t assume, though, that he’s an “in my day, things were better” merchant; in his view, things are going as well in 2017 as they ever have for coursing.
“A busy weekend,” he says of the 2017 vintage from his perch in the betting ring.
“Hard work, but worth it.”
His explanation for things being a bit more lively this year: “More money around.”
The improved facilities for those involved in the game and those who go along to watch — and, hopefully, bet — is the main difference between today and those days when Liam started attending.
Since 1888, the enthusiasts at Abbeydorney Coursing Club have been running events, with the Horgan Cup held over the third weekend of October their big annual meet.
The club sent up a team of 25 volunteers to this week’s national meeting to man the fundraising ranks, as the club pushes its draw to help with field development.
“We want to enlarge the hare paddock and provide better facilities at the escape,” explained club chairman Brendan O’Halloran.
The field is leased from the O’Brien family at Droumcunaigh, about 4kms from Abbeydorney and 5kms from Tralee.
“We’re carrying on with the proud traditions of our forefathers,” he said, adding that members had a “brilliant” response to the ticket-selling campaign in Clonmel.
The top prize is €5,000, with second to ninth prizes offering a service by a number of renowned stud dogs. Further prizes include a stay at the Charleville Park Hotel; €100 of Speed Rite Racer dogfood; lunch at the Rose Hotel in Tralee; and a voucher for the Castle Hotel in Macroom.
“We’d like to thank all the supporters and our sponsors and hard-working members of the club who stood here with us for three days to promote our draw,” said Brendan.
“We’re also very grateful to the ICC for giving us the opportunity to be here.”
Following its annual transformation for the three-day bonanza, Powerstown Park returns to the bread-and-butter stuff later this week.
The staff are, as you read, busily restoring the running rails, winning post, and obstacles in readiness for the Surehaul Novice Hurdle meeting, the highlight of which is the eponymous Grade Three hurdle. As usual, the big guns have made entries for the main event on Thursday, with the names Mullins, Meade, De Bromhead, and Elliott all featuring prominently among the 16 still in the race.
It’s traditionally a handy way to round off the sporting week for those who have hung around Clonmel that long, as well as a popular fixture with local fans.
Later this month, the next big national event is the Irish Cup festival, taking place at Limerick Racecourse from February 24 to 26.
Keeping the social aspect in mind later in the year is the popular Irish Coursing Club awards and dinner dance, which rounds off the season on April 1 at the Charleville Park Hotel.
Reikers Island and Blades Of Fire — full brothers with coursing blood as blue as you can get — went into the weekend among the most-backed of this year’s Boylesports Derby contenders and so it came to pass.
Their respective semi-final defeats of Ballygerald Buzz and Wiseguy Mark meant that, with the same owners and trainer, they would not be going up the hill again in a final.
Memories were immediately recalled of the last time this happened, in 1981, when the spoils were divided between Believe Him and Knockash Rover.
The brothers’ sire, Adios Alonso, won the event in 2010, while their dam is the popular Blades of Glory.
The last time the Horse & Jockey Hotel Oaks was completed without a final was more recently, in 2007, when Qualityandgold and Chubbys Accord emerged as top bitches.
One of the biggest cheers of the day came when Dicks Bimbo appeared to be heading for the quarter-final win her morning favouritism for the Oaks suggested, and the biggest groan followed shortly afterwards when she went off-line, ensuring she was knocked out by eventual winner Knockout Glory.
That removed the last “local” bitch from that competition, while a similar job was done by Reikers Island in the Derby semi-final, when the New Inn and Clonmel-owned, and Owen McKenna-trained, Ballygerald Buzz lost out.
