HUGE CROWD TURNS OUT FOR FIRST RACES AT NEW DOG TRACK
THREE YEARS AFTER THE CLOSURE OF THE OLD CIRCUIT ON THE RAMPARTS NEW STADIUM OPENS NOVEMBER 2003
THREE years after the closure of the old circuit on The Ramparts greyhound racing resumes at the new Dundalk Stadium.
A ten-race card features four opens and management is rewarded when a huge crowd turns up.
Applications are accepted from 16 bookmakers, some from the locality and others from Dublin and Northern Ireland. Chief executive Jim Martin explains there is room for twenty boards and that they could have filled the betting ring twice over.
Punters bet more than €171,000 with the bookies, while the Tote holds in excess of €40,000.
Two thousand racecards sell out quickly and such is the volume of people waiting to get in, the doors are thrown open as the first race approaches leading to free entry for many!
The attendance is an estimated 3,000. The facilities on offer are a far-cry from those at the track near the town centre.
Champions Restaurant seats 150 and there are two bars as well as a fast food outlet.
Outside, at 550 yards, the circuit is the biggest in the country and boasts a 410-yard sprint over which the Bar One Racing Irish Sprint Cup will be held, a fitting replacement for the National Sprint which took place at Dunmore in Belfast.
The first race, a 525, falls to the Ann Wade-trained Dermots Rocket, owned by Esther McGahon. An uneasy favourite, drifting from evens to 2/1, he comes home best to beat Booze Hound by oneand-a-half lengths in 29.91.
The card includes two semi-finals of the Champions Restaurant 410, which fall to Kilross Memory for Barney Mooney in Bessbrook and Ive Had It, representing Dublin’s Desmond Foran.
Closest finish of the night also comes over the sprint distance when another Dublin-owned dog, Muckenaugh Boy hangs on by a short-head. He is trained by Jacqueline Lawlor for Gerard Stephens.
Irish Greyhound Board chairman Paschal Taggart is on hand to see his We Get Results collect. She is trained in Co. Kildare by Fraser Black and is owned by the Curley-Taggart-Sheridan Syndicate.
Co. Meath handler Martin Lanney is on the mark with Persevere, property of the Percy Place Syndicate, Dublin.
There is an upset in a 550 when 5/1 chance Billys Glen beats Copeland Power by one-and-a-half lengths in 30.79 for Francis Toner and Joe Kelly. Odds-on favourite Mustang Moira is never in contention.
That time is eclipsed by Coolio, a syndicate-owned dog who flies around in 30.31, four lengths ahead of runner-up Blue Panther.
The layers take a pasting in the two 620s which conclude the action.
Kellysan is well-backed into 6/4 and comes through the field to see off Trudys Lodge by three lengths in 34.72. The winner is prepared by Stephen Bourke for the KBK Syndicate.
Likewise, the locally-owned Lunar Boy (Eugene Duffy) has plenty of followers in a packed betting ring. He attracts some hefty wagers and does the business in style in a time of 34.36.