90 AND STILL GOING STRONG: Shelbourne Park was looking tremendous last night, there was bunting and balloons galore as we all celebrated 90 years and raised a toast to the wonderful home of the greatest greyhound race in the world.
My granny was two years of age when the first race was run in 1927 and she is still going strong too! It was a fantastic night and we marked the occasion in style. I have so many wonderful memories of Shelbourne Park and everyone was sharing them last night. I’m lucky enough to say one of my earliest memories is of Bypass Bypass winning the Derby for Ollie Bray in 2002, I remember standing on the packed stand with my father as he cheered Micheal Kearney’s superstar home. My Dad Lar, well his memories go way back to Lispopple Story winning the Guinness 600. Dad reminisces of that night, ” On our way home we stopped in the local, the Rolestown Inn and we brought the dog into the pub. My Father ‘The Busman’ put some Guinness into an ashtray and gave it to Lispopple Story along with a packet of cheese and onion tayto and we celebrated all night”. I hope the dog knew his own way home that night Lar!
So the Derby kicked off last night and it was incredible. The track record was nearly broken not once but twice and we were treated to some juicy results, oh and some lovely birthday cupcakes and champagne too! The highlight of the night was by far the superb dog that is Sonic. The son of Knockglass Billy flew from traps and left his rivals battling out for places as he clocked 29.12. He was a joy to watch and I’m delighted the 2016 long standing Derby favourite was back to himself. I’m so excited to see him run next week already.
The other highlight was Clares Rocket. The wonder dog I like to call him, stolen from his kennels and is now favourite to win the Derby, I love this dog. As soon as he broke from trap 6 it was all over. He kept pulling further and further away from his competition and it looked like he was going to clock faster than Sonic but he crossed the finish line in 29.16, amazing. My other stand out performance goes to the mighty Tyrur Harold, trained by Galway’s finest P.J. Fahy. He flew around in 29.46. He is lightly raced and is a big contender is this years Derby. The second batch of heats take place tomorrow night and there are plenty of great heats to look forward to.
I was talking to plenty of well known faces last night, Bernard Dunne the boxer, Mairead Lavery from farmers journal, Adrian Kennedy from 98fm, John Duggan from Today FM, Jimmy Magee from RTE and the mighty Micheal O Muircheartaigh. A huge turn out to celebrate Shelbourne Parks 90th birthday and we shared it with some great characters. Marie and Skippy Gilbert, Tommy Bolton, May Kearns and Mickey O’Reilly, Mary Melia, just to mention a few, were all there too and everyone enjoyed their night. A well known face was missing however, Jerry Melia and I wish him a speedy recovery, I have been told he will be racing tomorrow night!
So I will see you all tomorrow night, if you have any memories from Shelbourne Park you would like to share with me please do or if you have any old photos I would be happy to share them.
Check out my weekly column in Saturday’s Irish daily Star newspaper for my tips.
