Fluin on Bubbly Charger- "He has surprised us a bit, We don't know how good he could be"

"He has surprised us a bit, We don't know how good he could be"

“He’s only had eight races in his life and his coat is still like a pups” he said of Bubbly Charger, pictured in trap four, making all the running from Bombay Pat last Saturday. 

“When we saw him on the podium last week, I think a lot of people were surprised that his coat was still very puppyish, and anyone who knows anything about greyhound racing will know that eight races is a small number of races as they are still learning, and they will also know if you still have a puppy coat, you’d think there would be more to come.

“He has surprised us a bit. We knew he was decent from the Con & Annie Kirby Memorial runs at Limerick, but the last two runs in the Derby have been impressive and against good opposition. When he went down the back on Saturday with Bombay Pat on his tail, I think a lot of people were expecting Bombay Pat to go past him, but he actually kicked on again so the form Is good.”

Bubbly Charger has been drawn in trap one in his quarter-final, having won his two previous rounds running from trap four, so I asked Fluin on his thoughts on the draw

“There’s been a little bit of debate about the draw. He hasn’t broken well when in trap one on a couple of occasions. One being the Kirby Final and the other being the first round of the Derby. The Kirby one, we know of as, if you excuse the pun, he charged the traps, so we knew what caused that problem as you can see on the video.

“Only traps one, two and three were available for him, and Damien Matthews said if he can’t have his so called favourite box after two wins, trap four, out of the three traps you’d probably want to be in one as you haven’t got anything on the inside, but I’m not worried myself.

“Damien stated, and I think he was very clever, that he’s got best draw to qualify. Not necessarily to win, but to qualify. Droopys Plunge hasn’t got the greatest of early pace and Droopys Trade has been moving off out of the second bend on a couple of occasions. He also said that being drawn against Bockos Diamond, you are going face quality at this stage, and you’re just looking to be in the first three, and that draw can see him finish in the first three in his opinion. He’s confident, without wanting to be arrogant, of qualifying and I think I am too.

“One of our members summed things up well the other day. At this stage, you’re a 50-50 chance of going through as the first three go through and the last three don’t, and it’s the same in the semi-final if we get there, you’re again a 50-50 shot of going through so we just hope we can get the best of two 50-50 shots.

“We’ve never been in the final before, we’ve had seven defeats in the semi-final but we’ve never had a Bubbly runner in the final. That’s obviously what we want but qualification is everything, but he’s a good dog and he’s improving. There’ll be no tears if he doesn’t qualify as he’s done us proud already”

Bubbly Charger laid a marker in the third round when beating Bombay Pat, and I asked Fluin whether he had thought that Bubbly Charger had gone slightly under the radar up until that point

“I think he’s gone under the radar to a certain extent. I think the truth is, and sorry to keep on quoting Damien, but he doesn’t know how good the dog is. He knew that he was good, but didn’t know how good. When I tried to buy him, he would only sell half. He wanted us to be involved as we lost Bubbly Shadow with him last year, but he didn’t want to let the dog go, and that told me that he knew what he had.

“You have to remember as well that the first round of the Con & Annie Memorial was his first ever race and was only a baby, so we don’t know how good he might be. He might come out of the boxes and do a 28.50, or he could come out and take a couple of bumps and do a 29.50.

“People talk about syndication, which is something I’ve done for the last thirty odd years, but the reality is, when you’ve got a dog that’s exciting, it’s more exciting as you’ve got a hundred owners. Obviously if things don’t go your way, it’s also a hundred disappointed people, but I don’t think it would have been the same if myself and my wife had just owned him being in the quarter-final’s as it is with everybody texting and ringing and getting excited. 

"The club members are regular normal people just looking to be involved in a nice greyhound, and that’s where we are. It’s really exciting but we have to keep our feet on the ground. The greyhound gods can be kind and cruel, and we had a tough run up to the Derby as we had a couple of dogs that broke their hocks, but hopefully we will have some better luck on Saturday”