2024 reflections: Bockos Diamond and Holland a match made in heaven
DREAM TEAM: Trainer Graham Holland with Bockos Diamond after winning the Irish Greyhound Derby at Shelbourne Park last November. Picture: Nick Elliott/Inpho
From the moment Graham Holland publicly admitted that ‘Yes, Bockos Diamond is a Derby dog’ — a statement far greater than the sum of the individual words — the pressure to deliver must have been immense. But man and dog triumphed in a style greater than ever previously seen to become the stars of a stellar year on the greyhound tracks.
Six rounds of the Derby demand more than any other and when, in round three, Bockos Diamond set a track record, the concern that it might be even more difficult to sustain such a level through the competition raised its head.
