Another One Bites The Dust

Well that’s it done and dusted for another twelve months. What a fantastic end to the 91st running of the National Coursing Meeting.

Powerstown Park was buzzing for three days, everything was perfect. Everyone in Team Powerstown, from the hare husbandry to the course staff must be applauded for their efforts. They left no stone unturned, their attention to detail was second to none! Every angle was covered, I have to give a special mention to the ICC Twitter team. The service they provided to the overseas fans was incredible! Everyone could get a blow by blow account of what was going on.

Coolavanny Bingo
Coolavanny Bingo was a very worthy winner of our own BoyleSports Derby, owned jointly by Noel Browne and Mark Lowther and trained by Noel Browne in Castleisland. He was available at 16/1 before the draw took place and was well supported at 16s but went off at 12/1 before the first round after rumours of a flying trial the week previous.

Bingo didn’t set the world alight in round one and two but really came to the fore after beating the well fancied Octane Wonder in the third round in a tremendous clock of 12.12. He was best priced 2/1 on the third morning for Derby glory. He made no mistake on the last day. He kept on getting stronger and stronger. He went into the final at 2/7 and easily disposed of Furey Mills who ran incredibly well for connections to reach the final. He could have been backed at 40/1 on the first morning!

This lad was bred to win the Derby, following the footsteps of his older brother Thomas The Tank.

Bingo was a bad result in our ante-post market, there was a massive queue in our shop in Castleisland first thing on Monday Morning! One nil to the punters.

Graceandglamour
This is a name that we won’t be forgetting for a long long time! She hurt us really bad. Grace started off the Oaks 8/1 favourite and never gave her supporters a moment’s worry. She was foot perfect throughout for the Flynn family from Tarbert. This was their second Oaks in three years!

From the moment she was dropped from slips on Friday morning she looked the likely winner. This daughter of Razor Ashmore and Quality And Dash has an unblemished record this year, three runs and three wins! I think her performance of the Oaks came in round three where she blew from slips and easily beat Clodagh River. This is one classy lady and many have her down as one of the best Oaks winners ever? As I said before we won’t be forgetting the name of this lady for a while. She was the best backed runner in the entire meeting and cost us a nice few euro. Two nil to the punters.

Mulboy King
What a story this has turned out to be! You could have backed this dog at double figure odds before the first round of the Desmond Cup in Glin at the start of the season. He was relatively unknown but ran out a comfortable winner. King was a 9/2 shot before the opening round of the Champion Stakes but after one round he was as low as 9/4 jolly.

Kyle Bruce was the best backed runner in the event but he ran well below par. Going into the final there wasn’t a lot between Mulboy and the Brendan Matthews trained Wizard Matthew but Mulboy romped home to victory. There were loud cheers from the stand as he was part of the favourite winning treble. Mulboy King is trained by Conor McCall in Dungannon, one would think he will be a leading fancy for the Irish Cup! This was our best result of the meeting. Two one to the punters now.

Tobar Na Molt
What a fairy tale ending to the season for Jonathan Best. Jonathan won this lady in a draw for Listowel Coursing Club three years ago. So she really only cost him €20! Last year she was a leading fancy for the Oaks but was eliminated in the first round, so plenty of people felt she still had to prove herself on the big stage. Her biggest win before here was in the Kindom Cup in Tralee, she qualified as leading point’s scorer in the Champion Bitch stake.

Although she started as the 2/1 market leader she was a winner in our book! We couldn’t give her away. The two best backed runners in this event were Ballyverry Baby and Bated Breath. They happened to meet in the opening round! Bated did manage to reach the final but realistically she had no chance as the handicap was well against her. So this made it 2-2 in the big stakes but Graceandglamour made sure that punters came out on top really!

T.A Morris and Kitty Butler Stakes
We had two very deserving winners of the T.A Morris and Kitty Butler Stakes. Howdododo flanked the form of Coolavanny Bingo, as there wasn’t much between these two in round one of the Derby. He was favourite from the start of the T.A Morris stakes and won like a favourite should. While Manley Girl was a gallant winner of the Kitty Butler, she went down to the smart Skellig Jewel in the first round of the Oaks in a very tight course after going off well fancied at 10/1. She made no mistake by winning the Kitty Butler and proved a very popular winner in the stands!

We haven’t got much more to say only congratulations to all the officials and staff of the Irish Coursing Club on a job well done. They will have some job on their hands to top it next year! All roads lead to Galbally next for the Tipperary meeting in two weeks’ time!