Jigsaw Complete

We are pleased to announce a new arrival at Drumscraw, Droopys Rosari. I have been trying to acquire a brood from the Maythorn Pride/Millies May for a while with two particular strands of interest, Gilded Mirror and Wise Memory. Grand daughters of these two broods are amongst the very top producers in the paddocks at the minute, Airport Express and Wise Beauty.

Sparky, is a beautiful long bitch who unfortunately injured her hock whilst schooling. She was trialing exceptionally well and according to Michael Dunphy had a very bright future ahead of her. Indeed the lads in Portlaw think there are one or two very "special" dogs in the litter.

A cursory glance through the offspring of Droopys Beauty has the names of some of the top racers of the last 5 years flowing off the lips. Si Senor, Droopys Tobey, Calzaghe Frisby, Droopys Lomasi etc. Also of importance is that several of the daughters of Droopys Beauty have made fantastic starts to their brood careers.

I will leave her until next year when she is fully mature before she commences her time in the breeding paddocks.

http://www.igb.ie/Trainers-Landing/Greyhounds/?gid=1C3C7DE4-D928-4B44-82BC-BD59372EEE3E

Mineola Di

Di has been mated to Hondo Black this week. I have been patiently waiting for this lady to come into season and she came in last Friday. The only downside is that she had brought all the other bitches on season along with her! Fingers crossed she has come home with a bellyful.

http://www.greyhound-data.com/dbtestmating.php?&sireid=529018&damid=1434411

Her litter mates had been performing exceptionally recently as has her half brother Fear Zafonic. He appears to be the cream of the puppy crop running in the UK at present.

Litter Announcement

We are proud to introduce to the world the latest arrivals at Drumscraw. Belle delivered a healthy litter of 3 dogs and 5 bitches, all Blue like their dad Droopys Maldini. Mum and pups are doing very well and are very big for their age.

http://www.greyhound-data.com/dbtestmating.php?&sireid=720266&damid=1217814

Belle's old part owner Neil Duggan was lucky enough to be there to witness the first five of the eight arrivals before sneaking off to bed and leaving me with the night shift!

Visitors

We have had a few owners over to stay recently. Neil Duggan was over the weekend that Faraday raced, we had two good nights at the track. Neil has a full update of his visit on his excellent blog. Take a look, there are some great pictures on Neil's blog.

http://zigzagwookie.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-05-25T07%3A15%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=7

Racing Strength

Very mixed fortunes on this front recently. Moneyline ran in the first round of the sweepstake and put in a blinder of an effort. He paced up very well from a horrible trap 6 draw and went to sweep the corner, another 5 yards and he would have been clear but the trap 3 bumped the 4 and he shot across into the Boss and turned him sideways. He regained his momentum and was motoring into the 3rd bend when he was forced to check again. At the line he finished a closing 4th and qualified for the next round as a fastest qualifier.

The second round was the following Friday and I was confident of a big run. I got him checked over mid week by Tony Collins and he pronounced him sound and said that he had took the race and bumping very well. The draw was slightly better, trap 5 for a railer! Boss was in great form on raceday and putting him into the traps I thought at worst he would finish in a place and if he trapped would put in a top run.

For some reason that I have yet to work out he got very agitated in the traps and according to the Steward tried to turn in the traps. The hare was only 50 yards from the traps at this stage so there was no chance of stopping it. There was an awful commotion coming from the boxes and a distressing yelping noise.

At trap rise he was slowly away and ran even worse after that to finish a bad last. I couldn't understand it but when he came into the pickup it was evident that he was badly lame. I think he caused the initial injury in the traps and running 700 odd yards on it didn't help. The upshot of it all is that he has a very badly damaged toe that may have to be removed. After consulting the vet we have decided to let it heal naturally and see if it stands up before considering amputation, as he put it "once its off I cant stick it on again".

Video of the first round is below

http://www.greyhound-data.com/play.htm?video=/video/IE/LFD/2008/LFD-2008-05-09-HT10.flv&name=THE AN-CU A3 525 Round 1

Faraday had her first race since her return from the Uk on the Sunday night of the same weekend that Moneyline was injured. She was well drew in T3 in an open sprint. She broke well and showed good pace for 50 yards before going wrong. She finished a bad last and was sore on her wrist the next morning. The winner ran a cracker for Terence McCroary stopping the clock in 1859 which is top open class.

Patch will be off for 3/4 weeks and will have to be brought back slowly. A frustrating time with the racers.