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Annual awards at Tralee’s greyhound stadium with Hall of Famer to be announced

O’Shea family from Cahersiveen enjoyed double at last week’s Tuesday SIS meeting at the Oakview venue

The 2024 Lee Strand sweepstake, for A3 class over 550yds, starts this Friday night at the Tralee track

John Barry
© Kerryman

Tralee Track holds its annual awards ceremony this Saturday night and the Clifford family from Ardfert have generously come on board as sponsors.

Awards will be presented in five categories, Bitch of the Year, Dog of the Year, Trainer of the Year, Private Trainer of the Year and Owner of the Year, and somebody will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Racing-wise, €700 will go to every winner.

Preference in relation to entries is going to members of the very active Kerry Greyhound Owners and Breeders Association and, apparently, there has been a big take-up in such membership. No surprise that.

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THEY love their greyhounds in South Kerry as much as in every other part of the county and the O’Shea family, of Cahersiveen, pulled off a very nice double at last week’s Tuesday SIS meeting at the Oakview venue.

Paudie and Marc O’Shea actually enjoyed the honour of supplying the fastest winner in Beginish Blondie, which clocked 29.19 (.10 slow) in an A2 525, and Paudie had Cian O’Shea as joint owner of Beginish Luke, which ran away with an A6 525 in 29.82 (also .10 slow).

Other winners and their estimated times: Emmerdale Shauna, 29.23; Droop Jet, 29.34; Cahirard Blue, 29.79; Blitz Boher, 29.74; Lissycasey Albie, 29.64; Brackers Rock, 29.32; Pinewood Sophie, 29.25; Headleys Brody, 29.63; Tokenfire Bono, 29.26; Manhattan, 29.85.

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LEE Strand Creamery has a big reputation at Tralee Track for the generosity of its sponsorship and for the way it climaxes the annual sweepstake carrying its name.

Well, the 2024 version of the Lee Strand sweepstake, for A3 class over 550yds, starts this Friday night and it promises to provide marvellous fare over the next few weeks.

You are going to see a lot of A3 greyhounds lose their grading and everybody is looking forward to the excitement that this will generate.

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THERE were many congratulations for DD O’Rahilly, father of Daniel O’Rahilly, owner of brilliant Kirby sweepstake winner, Knockeen Dazzler, at Tralee Track on Friday night and we learned from DD that the victory coincided with the third anniversary of the death of Daniel’s grandfather, Roger, who famously won the Irish Laurels at the old Cork track in 1981 with Knockeen Master. How about that.