Monevassia wins big race at Fr Caseys GAA benefit night

ABBEYFEALE is a great doggy heartland and it was quite something to see so many young people from the West Limerick border town turning up at the Oakview venue on Saturday night – and, better still, to see a number of them enthusiastically pushing the sale of raffle tickets in support of the Fr Casey’s ladies’ football team. These are the people the sport of greyhound racing needs into the future, and big-time at that.

As it turned out, Abbeyfeale greyhounds figured prominently on the night, with three of them winning (two owned by Michael Murphy and the third by Jack Foley), but the biggest pot of the night, the €700 at stake in the final of the Fr Caseys Ladies’ Football A6/ A7 525 Sweepstake, stayed in Tralee through the victory of Monevassia, which John Kelliher trains in Lohercannon, on the edge of the town, for a local syndicate headed up by Darragh Sheehan.

The even-money favourite was the Patrick O’Connor-trained Slipalong Queen, but she was badly impeded when chasing the front-running Eridani River at the opening bend and, indeed, misfortune befell Eridani River in the shape of a serious leg injury rounding that bend.

It all meant that Devon Dancer, which ran from trap 3, was allowed to build up a lead which amounted to five lengths rounding the third bend. It was very difficult to envisage defeat for the Templeglantine dog at this stage, but Monevassia, which ran from trap 1 and was a 2/1 shot in the betting with the only bookmaker in attendance, Patsy Browne, was about to launch the most powerful of challenges and she got up on the line for a short head victory over Devon Dancer in 29.54 (standard going), with four and a half lengths back to Quivers Shannon.

There were quite a few who thought that Devon Dancer had held on, but even if it was the shortest of short heads, the photograph on the line doesn’t lie.

Also run off on the night were two semi-finals of an ON3 525 sweepstake (winner, €1,200) and Patrick O’Connor was not to be denied in the first of them with Slipalong Magic, which justified odds of 4/6 in recording an impressive 28.75.

The winner of the second semi-final, on 29.39, was Westwind Jet, owned by Michael O’Rourke, of Farranfore, and the draw for the final this Saturday night, for which Slipalong Magic is sure to be hot favourite, is (trap order): Camp King (M), Slipalong Magic (M), Mega Bucks (M), Ballyhar King (M), Westwind Jet (W), Killeacle Sansa (W).

Michael Murphy’s two winners on the night were Leahys Dakota (29.65) and Kingdom Flash (18.23) and Jack Foley’s winner was Take Your Magic (29.39). Other winners: Baltovin Donna, 18.27; Evas Smurf, 29.76; Zug Zwang, 28.69; Tokenfire Abbie, 28.69.