FOR THE FINAL TIME - IRELAND’S TOWCESTER PROGRESS
Ian Fortune
And then there were six, five of which are Irish trained. The Star Sports/ TRC English Greyhound Derby continued at Towcester on Saturday night and, yet again, it was another memorable night or the raiding party as both heat winners were trained on these shores.
In fact, the first three home in the opening heat were Irish trained while the first two in the second heat were both Graham Holland trained. Sadly, Dynamic Force picked up an injury when also looking certain to progress ending the hopes of an all-Irish trained decider.
De Lahdedah will bid to create his own bit of history by becoming just the fifth dual winner of the classic in the near 100-year history of the event, while Bockos Diamond will bid to become just the second greyhound to win an Irish and English Derby after Toms The Best back in 1997.
The remaining qualifiers are the Peter Cronin trained Sole Mio, Bonbay Pat, Cheap Sandwiches, while the sole UK representative is Droopys Plunge.
Again, we have broken down the Irish challenge, highlighting some of the stats from the semi-finals.
Number of Irish trained winners in the semi-finals:
2 from a possible 2 (Ireland had runners in each of the 2 heats)
Number of Irish trained qualifiers:
5 (from a possible 6)
Breakdown of Irish qualifiers:
Graham Holland (3 from 3)
Bockos Diamond
Bombay Pat
Cheap Sandwiches
Liam Dowling (1 from 1)
De Lahdedah
Peter Cronin (1 from 1)
Sole Mio
WHERE THE IRISH FINISHED
A full breakdown of where the 6 Irish trained greyhound finished in the semis.
Saturday (6 runners)
Heat 1
1st De Lahdedah
2nd Sole Mio
3rd Bombay Pat
Heat 2
1st Bockos Diamond
2nd Cheap Sandwiches
DNF Dynamic Force