One of the great improvements in the Irish greyhound calendar in recent years has been in the area of puppy competitions.
A magnificent new event has just been announced for Kilkenny which will provide the top puppies with a magnificent introduction to their racing careers.
Red Mills have been very generous supporters of puppy racing through the years and they currently support the Produce Stakes at Clonmel and the Open Unraced Stake at Kilkenny.
Now stand by for the Red Mills Juvenile Championship which will follow on almost immediately after the Unraced events and will give the star young trackers four additional races in their own age group before being thrown into the big tough world of open racing.
Kilkenny manager Tom Kinane yesterday outlined the plans for this splendid new 48 dog event which will have a prize fund of €23,000, of which the winner will receive €10,000.
Said Tom, “We are very excited here about this new competition which will be just ideal for the dogs coming out of our Unraced Stake. It will be a nice stepping stone from the unraced competition for the dogs that might go on to challenge for the Irish Derby a month later”.
PROPOSED KILKENNY PUPPY DATES
May 4th – Red Mills Open Unraced 1st Round
May 27th – Red Mills Open Unraced Final
June 8th – Red Mills Juvenile 1st Round
June 29th or July 1st – Red Mills Juvenile Final
3 April 2012
29 March 2012
McCalmont Cup 2012
This year’s Broadway Pet Foods, McCalmont Cup, has again attracted a high quality entry, all keen to challenged for the €4000 first prize on offer. While it is not the competition it was when Paddy Dunphy's The Grand Champion won it 3 times in the 1950's, it will still take a lot of winning.
The first heat should see the Tony Howard owned Olympic Rockstar the fav on the boards. A dog, that debuted around Kilkenny in last year’s Red Mills, he has since recorded 28.67 around Shelbourne. However, Kilkenny specialist Princess Gael has he favoured trap 1 and she will be hard to catch if she leads up. While Pat Buckley’s young Paradise Tequila is a superbly bred dog with huge promise.
Murt Leahy will fancy his big white hope, literally, Sawdust Terry to scorch around the outside at the opening bend and take the second head, but Nikitia's Scut, a strong running Newbridge Oaks winner, and 2011 Derby runner will keep him honest here.
Another Local Dowd, Willie Hanlon's Ballygur Ted will not relish T5 in the third round, and his supports will be happy to see him qualify. The main competition to Ted here will come from the early paced duo of Faithful Man outside him, and Jennifer Howards, Shes Only Saying in Trap2.
Heat 4 is mega competitive. Mickeys Trickster is struggling to find his 2011 form, but if he does reproduce that he is the one they all have to beat. But, they sure will be lining up behind him. Droopys Comedian, a 2011 Irish Derby Heat winner in a huge 29.68, is a massive danger, and if he takes the Kilkenny circuit he will take some stopping. All this before we get to Guinness Trophy winner Oakfront Aga, and Sean Meade's pacey Paradise Siesta. This heat is a dinger.
Heat 5 includes a future star in Priceless Sky, but he is up against a huge jump in class and the experienced duo of Neon Charlie, and John Duggan's Pure Paphos will test this young dogs credentials.
It doesn’t get any easier in the sixth and final heat, with Trap 1 being filled by a classic winner, 2011 Leger winner What A Tornado. Despite his obvious pace he has never really shown it in St. James' Park, and this heat looks to favour the perfectly housed, Jack De Man, from the Jim Morrissey kennel, who time and time again has produced big runs in Kilkenny.
With 4 to qualify from each heat for the quarter finals, it promises to be a great nights racing.
The first heat should see the Tony Howard owned Olympic Rockstar the fav on the boards. A dog, that debuted around Kilkenny in last year’s Red Mills, he has since recorded 28.67 around Shelbourne. However, Kilkenny specialist Princess Gael has he favoured trap 1 and she will be hard to catch if she leads up. While Pat Buckley’s young Paradise Tequila is a superbly bred dog with huge promise.
Murt Leahy will fancy his big white hope, literally, Sawdust Terry to scorch around the outside at the opening bend and take the second head, but Nikitia's Scut, a strong running Newbridge Oaks winner, and 2011 Derby runner will keep him honest here.
Another Local Dowd, Willie Hanlon's Ballygur Ted will not relish T5 in the third round, and his supports will be happy to see him qualify. The main competition to Ted here will come from the early paced duo of Faithful Man outside him, and Jennifer Howards, Shes Only Saying in Trap2.
Heat 4 is mega competitive. Mickeys Trickster is struggling to find his 2011 form, but if he does reproduce that he is the one they all have to beat. But, they sure will be lining up behind him. Droopys Comedian, a 2011 Irish Derby Heat winner in a huge 29.68, is a massive danger, and if he takes the Kilkenny circuit he will take some stopping. All this before we get to Guinness Trophy winner Oakfront Aga, and Sean Meade's pacey Paradise Siesta. This heat is a dinger.
Heat 5 includes a future star in Priceless Sky, but he is up against a huge jump in class and the experienced duo of Neon Charlie, and John Duggan's Pure Paphos will test this young dogs credentials.
It doesn’t get any easier in the sixth and final heat, with Trap 1 being filled by a classic winner, 2011 Leger winner What A Tornado. Despite his obvious pace he has never really shown it in St. James' Park, and this heat looks to favour the perfectly housed, Jack De Man, from the Jim Morrissey kennel, who time and time again has produced big runs in Kilkenny.
With 4 to qualify from each heat for the quarter finals, it promises to be a great nights racing.
27 March 2012
Exciting Times Ahead
The summer season of racing in coming upon us at Kilkenny and with this week’s sunshine we can start to look forward top class racing from here on.
Wednesday night sees the final of the Erinstone Coursing Bred unraced, with the ever improving Big Mahie (Wallace Green - Lady Bellvue) a likely favourite for Martin Lanney. There is a great card on for the night with all races sponsored by local coursing clubs.
Friday night then we have the first round of the McCalmont cup, which as always promises to be a superb stake. Again, this is kindly sponsored by Tom Quinn of Broadway Petfoods.
Also, take note that the €12,000 Red Mills Champion Unraced is only 5 weeks away, with first round heats scheduled for Friday May 4th. This stake is sure to again unearth a star to follow in the footsteps of previous participants, Yahoo Jamie, Spiral Nikita etc..
Wednesday night sees the final of the Erinstone Coursing Bred unraced, with the ever improving Big Mahie (Wallace Green - Lady Bellvue) a likely favourite for Martin Lanney. There is a great card on for the night with all races sponsored by local coursing clubs.
Friday night then we have the first round of the McCalmont cup, which as always promises to be a superb stake. Again, this is kindly sponsored by Tom Quinn of Broadway Petfoods.
Also, take note that the €12,000 Red Mills Champion Unraced is only 5 weeks away, with first round heats scheduled for Friday May 4th. This stake is sure to again unearth a star to follow in the footsteps of previous participants, Yahoo Jamie, Spiral Nikita etc..
21 February 2012
FRIDAY NIGHT
Friday nights card at Kilkenny Track will be a top quality card with the final of the A5 Novice 725, Semi Finals of the A4 525 AND 1ST Round Heats of the Ruscar Dana Open 725 which will feature stars such as Welesbourne Dan, Barefoot Machine, Slaneyside Havoc & Kilmacar Nick. There will also be an Open 525 race featuring English Derby Finalist Barefoot Bullet, Sawdust Terry, Lewcas Thunder & Mickys Trickster.
There are also plenty of upcoming sweepstakes on the horizon most notably the Broadway Pet Foods McCalmont Cup A1 / A2 525 ( Backgraders Allowed) which starts Friday March 30th. This is once again very kindly sponsored by Tom Quinn of Broadway Fet Foods and carries a very decent €5,000 1st prize. 60 entries were received last year and it was won by Galway dog Jumeirah Joe.
Winner of the Kilkenny Track A5 Novice 750 was Lady Long Heir, owned by the Long Hair Syndicate
connections recieve their trophy from Tom Kinane
Karen Hehir, Mary and Eddie English, Francis Long, Kate English , Adam , Michael and Ned English
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