KING’S INJURY
Monday, May 10th
The saddest sight at Shelbourne Park on Saturday night was seeing Rossonairi King trailing the field in obvious distress in the opening semi-final of the Hegarty Bookmakers Open 600.
His trainer Brendan Moore has reported that the dog tore a muscle on leaving traps and will be out of action for a number of weeks. He said: “While the Sam Spade Syndicate were disappointed, they were thrilled with the run the dog had in the stake and are looking forward to Rossonairi King coming back to the track soon”.
Rossonairi King is another great syndicate success story, a dog being bought reasonably and then progressing to a stage that he could contest the semi-final of a Grade 1 event such as the Hegarty 600. Brendan Moore filled me in on the story behind the dog.
Brendan was employed in the construction industry before the “big bang” but always had dogs beating the Comogue prefix. So, when work dried up Brendan increased his greyhound involvement and started training a team of dogs from his kennels in Ballylanders, County Limerick where he is assisted by his wife Bridie and six children.
“We helped seven members of An Garda Siochana to form the Sam Spade Syndicate last year, the lads are all based in Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick. I bought the dog at Thurles Sales as an A6 dog and he has progressed through the grades. It just goes to show how people can get into the sport and they don’t have to pay telephone numbers for dogs.
“We believe newcomers to the sport should start with race dogs as opposed to buying pups or saplings as this is a minefield with untried dogs. The advantage of buying a race dog is that you can make the Syndicate, or single owner, aware of what they are getting, i.e., an A3 or an A5 dog, and expectations are for fun in going to see their charge run.
“In these days people can get involved in the sport for handy money. We purchased Rossonairi King at Thurles Sales as an A6 dog. He has risen through the grades to run in the Hegarty 600, which was a massive thrill for the boys and a good training performance from us. Hopefully, when he is fit again he will compete in other competitions. We have helped people to form two other syndicates and will have introduced twenty new people to the sport”.
This is a very heartening story and wouldn’t it be smashing if Rossonairi King can resume in peak form and continue to give the Sam Spade boys plenty of fun and celebrations. Here’s wishing them luck.
A DIV(A)INE WEEKEND
Monday, May 10th
What a weekend it was for the Meade clan and their famed Dalcash breed! First they celebrated a major triumph at Shelbourne Park on Saturday night and then on Sunday that winner’s litter brother made a sensational start to his career.
The much travelled Fr Jack Meade was a very proud man as he accepted the Olympic Bee Puppy Oaks trophy from Tony and Lorraine Howard at Shelbourne on Saturday after Dalcash Dvinsky had scored a very impressive victory in the prestigious competition.
Dvinsky is a member of the September ’08 litter by Ace Hi Rumble out of that smashing dam Dalcash Diva and she is now a prime fancy for the forthcoming Sporting Press Irish Oaks following this 28.75 run.
Then on Sunday at Kilkenny the first round of the Red Mills Champion Unraced Stake got underway and fastest of the round was Paradise Casino. He just happens to be a litter brother of Dvinsky and is owned by Fr Jack’s nephew Sean who operates his kennel down in Miltown Malbay.
Paradise Casino had qualified impressively and it was no surprise when he clocked a best of the night 29.02 in winning his heat.
But there had been another big winner for the litter over the weekend also! The race immediately after the Olympic Bee final on Saturday at Shelbourne was an open bitch contest and the winner was the very highly rated Freedom Seacrest, yet another member of the Dalcash Diva litter. And, would you believe it, she repeated Dvinsky’s time of 28.75.
Dalcash Diva has been a very successful dam and in her previous two litters she threw the 2008 Lee Strand 550 winner Paradise Santana and the 2009 Mike Cronin Juvenile winner Paradise Miami.
I have had a particular interest in the Dalcash line since the mid ‘90s when Dalcash Visa finished third behind a certain Cool Survivor in the final of the Sporting Press Irish Oaks at Shelbourne. Visa is the great granddam of Dalcash Viva and she has certainly done the Meades proud.
