Irish Greyhound Derby opening round re-scheduled
The Irish Greyhound Derby is less than two months away and has already become a hot discussion among all greyhound racing enthusiasts.
There have however been some concerns with the opening date originally selected for the first round which has now been looked into and dealt with.
Sponsors of the race, Ladbrokes had originally chosen the opening round to start on Wednesday 4th August which is the same day that Manchester United travel to Dublin to play against an Airtricity League XI in the first major game at the new Aviva Stadium.
Apart from the obvious traffic congestion which was expected in the area, there was also the possibility that the Football Association of Ireland would have celebrated with the use of fireworks, not something which goes down well with the greyhounds.
As a result, the 32 heats of the first round of Europe’s richest greyhound race will now be run from Thursday August 5th to Saturday, August 7th.
Sir Alex Ferguson will also be invited to attend Shelbourne Park on Thursday night, even though his generally a face you would tend to spot at the horses - or the dugout.
Shelbourne Park manager Patrick Flynn said in the Racing Post: “We had a very successful Derby last year, but 2010 will be the best yet and we believe the opening round festival will give the competition a great start.”
The sponsors are also putting up a bounty of €80,000 in addition to the first prize of €120,000 should last year’s record-breaking College Causeway come out of retirement and defend his crown.
The dates for the Irish Derby are:
First round: Thursday 5th August, Friday 6th August & Saturday August 7th.
Second round: Thursday 12th August and Saturday August 14th
Third round: Saturday August 21st
Quarter-finals: Saturday August 28th
Semi-finals: Saturday September 4th
Ladbrokes Irish Greyhound Derby final: Saturday September 11th
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