The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Upsets the order of the day in Killeacle
THE semi-finals of the John & Mary Killeacle Dowling 570 were the feature on Friday night’s card at the Kingdom Greyhound Stadium. However, neither heat ran according to script with the ‘Jollys’, namely Unleashthebeast and Ballymac Sarahjo, making surprise exits in the penultimate round of the prestigious Stake.
The Chris Houlihan trained Unleashthebeast was all the rage prior to the opening semi-final having set the fastest time of the previous round, and the Ballyduff runner justifiably went to traps the warm 4/6 favourite. However he didn’t trap well, moving left leaving boxes and was lucky not to run off inside the running rail. To his credit he showed a good burst of early pace to be firmly back in the mix off the opening bend and raced a clear second between the opening curves behind the early paced Faithfull Linda who took a flyer from trap 6.
Paradise Summer (Cashen Legend / Dalcash Paradise) seems to do all his running from halfway and the Sean Meade trained runner began to make his move off the second bend and was closing in on second placed Unleashthebeast with every stride down the back straight.
With Faithfull Linda still leading the way out in front, there was an almighty pile up at the third bend which Paradise Summer was lucky to avoid having just cleared Unlesashthebeast.
The Clare runner challenged the leader on the outside rounding the closing turn and just outstayed the long time leader right at the finishing line to claim victory by a neck in 31.21 at odds of 3/1.
Boros Dara (Kinloch Brae / Droopys Picture) impressed when claiming the second semi final in 31.24 for Cork trainer Pat Sheehy. Sporting the stripped jacket, he raced to the front at the opening bend and outstayed his rivals throughout the contest.
Ballymac Sarahjo was aiming to maintain her 100% record in the competition however she completely missed the kick and her bad luck was confounded at the opening bend when being baulked as she battled to get into the race. However, out in front, it was Boros Dara who blazed the trail with Jasons Fifi initially giving chase down the bag. Right Half Back produced a good turn of foot to take second position at the third bend, and while he closed the gap to the leader on the run in, Boros Dar scored a comfortable one and-a-half length victory in 31.24.
Jasons Fifi just held off the luckless Balllymac Sarahjo to claim the final qualifying spot by a length. The winner is jointly owned by Michael and Dara O Brien and returned at odds of 4/1.
Interestingly, Boros Dara won his opening round heat of the Stake in 31.18 and ran into trouble in Rd 2 when returning the 6/4 favourite. He will race from trap 6 once again in the final and may be the one they will all have to beat. Regardless, it promising to be a terrific finale to the Stake.
The fastest clock on the card came in Race 8, as the Paddy Purtill owned Niamhs Big Mike (Tyrur Big Mike/ My Girl Lollipop) continued his terrific recent run of form when claiming his third win from his last four starts.
This was without doubt the most impressive win so far in his relatively short career, having only made his debut back in February in the Juvenile Classic. He broke smartly from trap 3 in this A0/A1 contest and produced terrific early foot to lead at the opening bend and maintained his advantage through to the finish in a smashing time of 28.58.
Runner-up Saleen Brax ran a cracker considering he was crowded at both the first and second bends to end up just a length back from the winner. The 6/4 favorite Floury Spuds ran on to take 3rd a further ½ length back having also experienced difficulties early in the race.
Also winning on the night were Feora Legend, Broadmill Buddy 29.69, Our Exception, Ionic Puppeteer 17.71, Kilcurra Penny 29.39, Lisseycasey Dot 29.45 and Jasons Perl 29.17