Shocks Galore In Corn Cuchulainn

The first round heats of Ireland’s premier staying competition, The Corn Cuchulainn, took place last Friday evening in Harolds Cross and there was a favourite as even money or less turned over in each heat!

The first heat of the evening saw one of the ante-post favourites, Tradition, in action. This Pat Dalton owned daughter of Droopys Scolari and Flying Winner came into this race after a scorching 41.45 run around Shelbourne Park two weeks ago.

While she is still a bit of a novice over the trip, she sees it out strong. Victory here in the first heat went to the Sean Dowling trained Joyful Dribbler who made it two from two around the Cross. Dribbler is a wide running greyhound and has come from off the pace to win both his starts around the track. He took up the running as they headed down the back straight for the second time. The favourite, Tradition, was still last at this point and was only starting to get going but it was far too late as the leader had kicked for home off the last corner and ran out a very comfortable four and a half lengths winner in 42.20.

The second heat saw the favourite, Droopys Oddysey, finish well outside the qualifying positions after first bend trouble. Victory here went to the Kiely family from Kilmallock owned Shaneboy Sue as she got up late to beat the front running Razldazl Rubin who had a healthy advantage as they passed the stands for the first time.

Sue moved into second position as they reached the penultimate turn and was eating into Razldazl’s lead with every stride. Sue got up to win by a neck in 42.23 on a very testing track. Coincidentally, Razldazl’s sectional of 14.57 was fastest of the round. Uncle Paul was the youngest heat winner as he made it third time lucky over six bends. He was a Produce Stakes semi-finalist recently in Clonmel and has since ran in Shelbourne over the extended trip but with no luck. Paul made his presence felt on the run to the corner and used his four bend pace to open up an advantage down the far side for the second time.

He needed to because Group Rebel was finishing with a flourish in second place and just failed to catch Paul by three quarters of a length in 42.70. Karlow Master is a well-seasoned campaigner over four and six bends so it wasn’t a big surprise when he upset the ante-post favourite Fire Height Amy in their heat. Karlow got first run and took his chance from the front and employed the catch me if you can tactics.

Amy, to be fair, ran a brave race in behind after meeting trouble in running. She ran on strong to only be denied by a neck in 42.45. The last heat was a messy affair after the early pace setter Kiltrea Roisin seemed to go wrong around the second corner and caused trouble to the rest of the field. This reflected in the time of the race.

Strong Bucks and Maggies Lucy had their own private battle up the home straight bumping and barging each other. Strong Bucks had his head down in the right place at the right time in 43.48.

Even though the two ante-post favourites were turned over in the first round, I fully expect them to be in the thick of things come the business end of this competition.

Harolds Cross is a law onto itself and you need a few looks around it to get used to it. The three quarter-finals will take place this Friday night.

Tipperary Cup, Thurles.
The Tipperary Cup is the highlight every year in Thurles and this year it has attracted some big name runners, the biggest of all is most definitely last year’s Derby fifth Emers Superstar who was returning from a career threatening injury. He safely booked his position into the second round and is sure to improve from the outing. The fastest run of the opening round came from the local runner Boherna Pedro who recorded a fastest time of the year, 28.59.

Local knowledge plays a big part in this event each year and is a major positive. Other winners of note were Wheres The Sugar 29.16, Triangle Jamie 28.87, Thorpys Ace and the puppy Black Tom 28.99. We will have updated outright betting available during the week so keep an eye out online. We laid a number of runners prior to the first round with the most popular being Emers Superstar!

Go On Silva
Paradise Silva did us a huge favour in the final of the BoyleSports Race Of Champions in Tralee last month when he was beaten in the final after missing his break, so we were thrilled to see him coming out in front on Sunday night in the Dundalk International.

After Tralee, I thought age was catching up on this old boy, but how wrong could I be? He ran the race of his life on Sunday night. He had to because my fancy and his kennel mate, Paradise Maverik, turned in second place to him down the back and at one stage I thought Maverik had him.

Although, the old warrior dug deep up the home stretch and stuck his neck out on the line to deny his kennel companion. All I could hear when Silva hit the front was the cries of his handler Chris Connelly, “GO ON SILVA”, as he raced with his dog down the back straight. It was a great training performance by team Buckley who had a 1-2.

We have left all runners unchanged for the Derby, with Paradise Silva’s participation unlikely according to connections. Favourite, Ballymac Matt, missed the kick and never really got involved. He will be more at home when he returns to SPK. Rural Hawaii ran out an impressive winner of the ECC Timber 550 last weekend. He is improving with every run around headquarters so we nipped him into 33/1 for Derby glory.

Keep an eye out online for all these ante-post prices and Derby market movers on www.boylesports.com. The upcoming Champion Stakes could have a serious bearing on the Derby market. #BetOnBoyle!