Female trainers in spotlight at williamhill.com Greyhound Derby, Kelly Findlay has a runner-up
What sets apart this year’s williamhill.com English Greyhound Derby final was the presence of a number of female trainers, despite the fact that ever since its inception 81 years ago, the prestigious greyhound racing event has seen only four women trainers winning the derby.
Women trainers discarded the idea that racing is for men, as half the field was running for women in the £75,000 480m final.
The final started at 10:12pm on Saturday, 16th of June, 2011, and the entrants for women trainers included Dolores Ruth’s Razldazl George, Kelly Findlay’s Westmead Guru and Norah McEllistrim's Cloheena Cash.
Of these, the highest expectations were linked with 7/2 third favourite Razldazl George, also known as ‘Gorgeous'.
Trainer, Dolores Ruth, had an impressive record which just added to the expectations. She won the Shanless Slippy in 1996, which was the last time a woman won it.
However, the Irish hound, Razldazl George, from Kinloch Brae failed to live up to these expectations by finishing in fifth place.
This was disappointing as it was anticipated that an Irish dog might win this year’s final as the Irish have already won eight in the past thirty finals.
Cloheena Cash gave Norah McEllistrim her big break by making it to the final as this was McEllistrim’s first final after a long training career.
She started training Cloheena Cash when he was eighteen months old and was clearly overjoyed before the final when she said that just making it to the final was a fantastic feeling that she wanted to last.
What is even more surprising about this dog-trainer duo is Cloheena Cash’s perseverance.
He was born still and had to be revived via mouth to mouth resuscitation and has still made it to the final of such a big event where he faced formidable challenge in the form of Taylor Sky, Barefoot Bullet and Bright Redcliffe.
Crash’s son, Cloheena Cash, did not perform exceptionally well and finished in fourth place.
Westmead Guru was the third entrant by a female trainer and that too by a trainer that had been on leave for close to a year.
However Westmead Guru’s skills gauged from the fact that just a while before the race betting, support rose from 10/1 to 8/1.
By finishing in second place, Westmead Guru from Tyrur Ted and Westmead Swift finally made the ladies proud.
Although neither of these women could become the fifth woman trainer to win the williamhill.com English Greyhound Derby, just the fact that they got this far in a predominantly male industry is commendable.
For Kelly Findlay this sense of achievement was that her dog was indeed the runner-up in such a competitive field.
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