Inside Track: Going round the bend – in front – can pay dividends

What race takes around 21 seconds to run and carries a first prize of €20,000? The answer will come quickly to greyhound racing enthusiasts.

It’s the final of the Bar One Racing Irish Sprint Cup, this year’s running of takes place tonight at Dundalk Stadium. It’s over 400 yards.

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Yes, they go very fast, those longtailed livewires, the swiftest of them over 40 mph. A race between one of them and a cheetah could well produce a photo-finish, that’s if the cheetah hadn’t eaten his opponent along the way.

The hound is at his fastest over a straight course; tonight, the six runners contesting the final will have two bends to negotiate. Getting to the first of them in front can have its reward.

The first corner is where the majority of the field come together. Whichever of them turns left in front nearly always triumphs, especially in a race of this calibre.

That’s a dilemma facing punters as they search for the winner – which of the sextet is likely to have the call at this crucial point.

If they can establish that, then there’s a good chance there’ll be up to Mickey Rooney’s pitch afterwards, exchanging a docket for cash.

Semi-final running would suggest it will be Broadstrand Syd. The title-holder left the traps like the proverbial scaled cat in the second of the semi-finals, and was never headed.

However, his lead was being diminished rapidly going to the line, suggesting a campaign that has seen him transported from Cork on four occasions so far, might be taken its toll.

That said, the John A. Linehan-trained runner has been supreme at the track. He went through last year’s competition unbeaten, and if successful on Friday, will keep his record intact, and so become the second to win this Classic twice.

(Ardnasool Jet was the first.) His overall record speaks volumes – 14 wins from twenty outings, and only thrice outside the first two.Broadstrand will wear the white sheet, as he did in the semis, and won’t be inconvenienced.

Droopys Patriot also goes into the final with an unbeaten record, and is sure to have many followers. Robert Gleeson’s charge is another with an impressive career record, six wins from eight outings.

Stonepark Browne was a fast-finishing runner-up to Broadstrand, winning from the unfavourable trap one. He goes from trap four, and in the words of a famous politician, could “upset the apple tart”.

It’s a classy line-up, one of the best in the 21-year history of the event. Most of the country’s top trainers have a runner, Linehan, Gleeson, Liam Dowling, Pat Buckley, Patrick Guilfoyle and Michael J O’Donovan.

The race features on a card that has a number of other finals, and the dogs will be the second segment on a day-long programme at the track, horseracing having the call in the afternoon.