Just days after being named the Future Star, the Bitch of the Year and Supreme Greyhound of the Year at the National Greyhound Awards, Susie Sapphire cemented her title as the Queen of Irish Greyhound Racing when she claimed the 2022 BresBet Easter Cup Final in Shelbourne Park.
Thank you to our sponsors, BresBet, for their fantastic support of the Easter Cup. It’s been a pleasure to work with them for their first year of the Easter Cup sponsorship and we look forward to welcoming them back in 2023!
1 Susie Sapphire-WINNER
2 Knight Tornado
3 Romeo Magico
4 Darbys Delight
5 Priceless Jet (w)
6 Beach Avenue (w)
Nothing beats being there! You can book you restaurant table or general admission tickets now on our website, or you can also pay admission on arrival.
The 2022 BresBet Easter Cup Final takes place on Saturday 12th March in Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium.
Get prepared with your free virtual race programme or use it to follow the action from home if you are watching with Barking Buzz or live on TV with Racing Post Greyhound TV.
To make the digital copy easier to read, set it to full screen. You can do this by clicking on the rectangle with 4 white corners on the bottom right on a desktop or in the centre on mobile.
If you cannot see the embedded reader above, click here to open the digital version in a new window
Trap 1 Susie Sapphire
Trap 2 Knight Tornado
Trap 3 Romeo Magico
Trap 4 Darbys Delight
Trap 5 Priceless Jet
Trap 6 Beach Avenue
If you cannot see the embedded player, please click here
If you cannot see the embedded video above, click here to watch on Youtube
Nothing beats being there! You can book you restaurant table or general admission tickets now on our website, or you can also pay admission on arrival.
For the latest news & updates on the BresBet Easter Cup, keep an eye on Talkings Dogs. Ian Fortune will be providing regualr updates on all the action.
You can also catch up on all the racing videos for free from Sunday on the GRI Results Page.
ROUND 1: Saturday, 19th February
ROUND 2: Saturday, 26th February
SEMI-FINAL: Saturday, 5th March
FINAL: Saturday, 12th March
NEW UK-based bookmaker BresBet is to sponsor one of greyhound racing’s most historic competitions The Easter Cup at Shelbourne Park, Dublin.
The Sheffield-based firm, which specialises in football, horse and greyhound racing, is backing the four-round 550-yard showpiece, which begins with heats on Saturday, February 19, and concludes with a €25,000-to-the-winner final on Saturday, March 12.
Commenting on the two-year deal announced today, BresBet managing director David Perry said: “We are delighted to be associated with such a famous and longstanding competition as The Easter Cup at such an incredible sporting venue as Shelbourne Park.
“This reaffirms our commitment in supporting top-class greyhound racing which saw us last year back two UK events with the BresBet East Anglian Derby at Yarmouth and BresBet Steel City Cup at Sheffield, which we hope to again support in 2022.
“The Easter Cup sponsorship is our first venture into Irish greyhound racing and we feel we have started at the very top! It has been an absolute pleasure to work on this with Greyhound Racing Ireland (GRI) and the Shelbourne Park management.
“We are proud as the UK’s newest bookmaker to support greyhound racing in this way. Horse racing is at the core of our business - we are brand sponsors for trainers Fergal O’Brien and Milton Harris - but our love of greyhound racing will ensure that BresBet will feature prominently across both sports in terms of partnerships and sponsorships.”
📢 BREAKING NEWS!
— Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium (@shelbournepark) February 1, 2022
NEW UK-based bookmaker @BresBet is to sponsor one of greyhound racing’s most historic competitions The Easter Cup here in Shelbourne Park, Dublin.
Read the full announcement on https://t.co/lC0fvVZ9xk
Welcome 🎉 #EasterCup #ThisRunsDeep #GoGreyhoundRacing
Dearbhla O’Brien, CEO of Greyhound Racing Ireland, said: “I am delighted to welcome BresBet on board as title sponsor of The Easter Cup.
“As the first ever Open event in our sport in Ireland, The Easter Cup has a history as long as track racing itself and has always attracted the very top names to the competition.
“Announcing a two-year sponsorship of The Easter Cup, BresBet are confirming their commitment to greyhound racing as they establish themselves as a key player in the market. All of the team at Greyhound Racing Ireland and Shelbourne Park look forward to developing the relationship with them as we work together to promote this great competition and our sport as a whole.”
First run at Shelbourne Park in 1928, previous winners of The Easter Cup include the legendary Spanish Battleship, the three-time Irish Derby winner, who won in 1954 and 1955, while Mick the Miller, himself a three-time English Derby winner, was runner-up in 1929.
Other Easter Cup winners include Indian Joe (1980), who won the English Derby at White City the same year, and another English Derby champion Farloe Melody, who successfully defended his Easter Cup title (1991/92) having won his Derby at Wimbledon in 1992.
Farloe Melody and Spanish Battleship are two of five dual winners of the Easter Cup, the others being the inaugural champion Odd Blade (1928/29), Astra (1945/46) and the hugely popular Late Late Show, who won back-to-back titles in 2001/02.
Late Late Show was trained by Paul Hennessy, a Cheltenham Festival-winning racehorse trainer with Heaven Help Us last year, but a multiple Derby-winning greyhound trainer. Hennessy has won the Easter Cup no fewer than seven times.
Hennessy said: “This is fantastic news that BresBet has stepped into sponsor The Easter Cup. The competition has an incredible history and we have been blessed to have won it a few times. It would be nice to think we could launch another challenge for the title this year.
“But either way, this is a great shot in the arm for Irish greyhound racing that a new and growing UK company, albeit one with close connections to the sport, has decided to support The Easter Cup in this way. It is always a brilliant and high-class competition.”
The Pat Buckley-trained Knocknaboul Syd was a superb winner of last year’s Easter Cup, the second for the trainer, while Graham Holland, who struck with Clona Blaze and Wolfe in 2019 and 2020, has won three of the last six runnings of the Classic.
Both are expected to again field strong challenges for the 2022 running of The BresBet Easter Cup, as will Owen McKenna, trainer of Susie Sapphire, last year’s Irish Greyhound Derby and Oaks champion, who has suggested his incredible bitch could make her seasonal bow in the heats.
For the latest news & updates on the Easter Cup, keep an eye on Talking Dogs. Ian Fortune will be providing regular updates on all the action.
