Julie Collier Blog 10: Greyhound Derby 2022

🐶 I think the third round evening belonged to Seamus and Teresa Cahill who qualified all four of their Derby dogs through to the quarter-finals, much to their delight. It’s fair to say they have gone a little under the radar both before and during the Derby so far. But not anymore. Their dogs are running out of their skin for them! Kilkenny Santi was perhaps the biggest surprise in winning his race at 9/1 and coming from off the pace. Seamus’s dogs seem strong and, as I will come to later, that could play into their hands at this stage. Plus Seamus has already been there and done it with an ‘under the radar’ dog, winning with Asutue Missile in 2017 at Towcester. The kennels twitter page is run by one of their owners, my old Sky Sports Producer Dave Lawrence. It’s well worth a follow (@CahillKennels). On Sunday they tweeted a photo of their fab four and their excitement is palpable. Good luck on Saturday guys!

🐶  Emma Buckley is understandably thrilled to have three of their runners into the quarter-finals and, with Ballinabola Ed starting to break a little better as well as notching up those flying times, there are few who don’t think he is the one to beat. Emma says he has ‘matured beautifully’ over the last few weeks and is ‘so cool and calm’. She also thinks that Singalong Sally is improving at the track with every run and it showed, as she clocked 29.34sec in winning her heat, only second on the clock to the 29.12sec of Ballinabola Ed. Then, Bobsleigh Dream, I am told, is made of tough stuff, a real asset at this stage of the Derby. I did ask Emma to pick between her three but she couldn’t. ‘They’re all like my children’, she said. Good school reports all round so far!

🐶  This week I took a trip to the kennels of Richard Yaetes who trains the walking miracle that is Faughan Rebel. Richard told me that he was 77 and has been training dogs since he was 14. Maths was never my strong subject but I think that makes it 63 years training, and in all that time, he has never had a dog come back from a stopper bone injury. Until now. And not only has Rebel come back, he is heading into the quarter-finals of the Star Sports Derby in terrific form! His owners adore him and the whole story is just a really lovely, feel good one. They like his draw for the next round so, roll on the quarters!

🐶  The Mickys Barrett train continues as he finished second to Cape Cloud (who clocked a flying 29.38sec on what was widely deemed to be a slow track). Jason is thrilled and sent me this happy photo on Sunday morning. He told me he was spending his week resting, recovering and getting ready for the next round (I’d imagine that refers to dog and trainer). The kennel staff have also assigned a new song to the dog; Unstoppable by Sia. Let’s hope they’re right. Can he really go all the way to the final!? I’m not sure how the Derby lunch will cope with 64 owners! Micky gets trap six in his quarter-final but has run from stripes a few times before at Newcastle so fingers crossed!

🐶  I was gutted to see Thorn Falcon go out of the Derby but even a class act like him can’t keep missing the break as he was and getting away with it. The good news on that front is that the dog is absolutely fine. Patrick lost five of his eight runners, leaving him with speedy Lautaro, super-game Aussie Captain and Monmore Puppy Derby winner, Deelish Frankie. The seeding of Lautaro has been debated since the start of the competition when he was seeded rails but then switched back to middle after the first round. Inevitably, this is going to mean him being drawn wider than ideal given the lack of wide runners in the Derby, and he has again drawn trap six in the quarter-final. Lautaro is one I still have ante post so I am hoping he has the pace to get himself out of toruble!

🐶  It was Savana Beau that picked up Lautaro at the weekend and he looks to be one dog sailing through and getting stronger and stronger, including that win in the third round heat. He’s an April 2020 so you’d think his best days are ahead of him. And he has a good woman in his corner in the shape of trainer, Diane Henry. She barely watched the race and gets so nervous during the races bless her. She is a lovely lady and I wish her all the best for the next round. Imagine Kevin Boothby winning the Derby at his own track too! Has that ever been done anywhere is the world before I wonder? Unlikely I expect. Fair play to Kevin, he rated this one from the start…

🐶 Debate about Towcester track maintenance was still rumbling on through the weekend with John Mullins being the latest trainer to question the surface and going. Again the wind was blowing at what is the most exposed track in the country. Kevin Boothby’s view is that his priority is to see all the dogs come home safely and, it is undisputed that the track is safe. I wonder though…we always talk about the Derby being a tough six rounds and at Towcester it is, of course, a long run to the pick-up too. Might we start using this knowledge to our advantage when it comes to tipping and punting? The strong runners could really come into their own couldn’t they?

🐶 Just two more runs in the first three will get you a place in the final of the most prestigious race in the world. Good luck to everyone this weekend. Come Sunday, there will be just 12…

JULIE COLLIER

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