IRELAND’S TOWCESTER PROGRESS BY NUMBERS

Ian Fortune

As we look ahead to the semi-finals of the Star Sports & TRC English Derby at Towcester, the Irish account for six of the remaining twelve greyhounds in the classic.

Two of the four quarter final winners are trained on Irish soil as Graham Holland sent out both Gaytime Nemo and Swords Rex to progress. 

It certainly bodes well for the Irish challenge and also compares favourably to twelve months ago when Ireland had just four runners left at this stage.

Below we’ve highlighted some of the stats from the quarter finals focusing on the Irish runners.

Number of Irish trained winners in opening round:

2 from a possible 4 (Ireland had runners in all four heats)

Number of Irish trained qualifiers:

6 (from a possible 10)

Breakdown of Irish qualifiers:

Graham Holland (4 from 6)

Swords Rex

Clona Duke

Jacktavern Bella

Gaytime Nemo

Liam Dowling (1 from 2)

Ballymac Finn

Brendan Matthews (1 from 1)

Burj Khalifa

WHERE THE IRISH FINISHED

A full breakdown of where the 10 Irish trained greyhounds finished in the quarter finals. 

Heat 1

2^nd Burj Khalifa

6^th Boylesports Gift

Heat 2

2^nd Clona Duke

5^th Ballyhimikin Leo

6^th Romeo Hanzo

Heat 3

1^st Gaytime Nemo

3^rd Jacktavern Bella

6^th Ballymac Marino

Heat 4

1^st Swords Rex

3^rd Ballymac Finn