Death of training legend Matt O’Donnell

There was a sad start to the new year for the greyhound community with the news legendary trainer Matt O’Donnell passed away yesterday.

Based outside Killenaule, in Co. Tipperary, O’Donnell, 82, won virtually everything there was to win, and was responsible for some of the finest greyhounds of their era, or any era.

O’Donnell, who first took out his training licence almost 50 years ago, counts four Irish Derbys amongst his greatest achievements, the first of which came courtesy of that brilliant bitch, The Other Toss, in 1990.