Huge crowds defied awful conditions to attend the Quarter-Finals Of The Boylesports Irish Greyhound Derby in the Shelbourne Park on Saturday night, and their defiance was rewarded with a great night of action.
The night saw four heats where 24 greyhounds were to be cut to 12 advancing to the semi-finals. There was a couple of upsets in the previous rounds as the two favourites were knocked out early. That was to be a sign of things to come as there was further upsets in the quarter-finals.
The first heat race saw 4/1 favourite Roxholme Barkley take an early and ultimately insurmountable lead. College Paradise and Cahir Castle followed in second and third respectively.
The second quarter final saw the hot favourite and aptly named, Sonic take first while defending Champion Ballymac Matt had to settle for second. The third heat saw 5/4 favourite Sidarian Pearl race to victory with a time of 29.71, the fastest of the night. Holycross Leah and Ela Alecko followed in second and third.
The final heat saw an upset as potential outright favourite Lenson Rocky crashed out of the derby while Gyp Rosetti, Farloe Rumble and Escapism advanced. It's all to play for as the semi-finals approach with second heat winner Sonic the Boylesports bookies pick to win it out.
The full video with all of the action, a review of the night's action by Ian Fortune and Kevin Hennessy, and the draw for the semi-finals is below:
