Irish Derby finalist Im Here joins Carl Jackson
Carl Jackson continues to add strength to his team with the purchase of Irish Derby finalist Im Here
Jackson adds serious strength to team
Carl Jackson has added a serious player to his kennel in the shape of Im Here. The Time Greyhound Nutrition Puppy Derby winner at Shelbourne back in July, he followed that up with a run to the final of the BOYLE Sports Irish Greyhound Derby.
Add to that the fact that he is just an August 24 whelp with 14 career races under his belt, it's no surprise that Jackson's reaction when he spoke to us was that he's a "brilliant dog to get!"
How Jackson came to get the dog is the epitome of the phrase, 'you don't ask, you don't get. Jackson said " I spoke with him (Aidan Comerford, owner of I'm Here) at Shelbourne on Saturday after the final and his plans were to put him away for next year.
"But in my head, the way I know Aidan, I knew that wouldn’t happen. His only focus is the Derby, so I dropped him a text on Tuesday and the rest is history!
"I've got a great relationship with Aidan, and have had quite a few dogs off him over the last two years. In fact, I don't think i've turned one down off him!"
He will be owned by a small syndicate, who are going to have plenty of fun with their new purchase. Jackson continued, "There's four lads involved. Michael Phillips, Michael Young, John Pickering and Paddy Baldwin. The first three I’ve got and had dogs for them, they are great owners and supporters of me. Paddy is brand new to game, he bought a bitch last week and now has been lucky enough to get involved in this lad!"
It would be easy to get over excited with this level of dog coming into the kennel but Jackson and his owners are happy to be patient with their new charge. "The plans at the moment is just to let him settle in as he's had a hard last couple of months.
"It will be a few weeks on his bed to settle in, and then it will be all roads to the Premier Greyhound Racing Classic at Sunderland and the Premier Greyhound Racing All England at Newcastle, our north east Derby's!"
Im Here is far from the only smart type in the kennel, with Jackson saying that "another one to follow here is a bitch called Poppy Queen. I think she is going to be very good over the staying trip.
"She won last week at Sheffield, and we trialled her on Tuesday at Star Pelaw with a view of going to the Stewards Cup, but she has come off a bit dehydrated, so those plans are on back burner for now. She is another I got off Aidan Comerford, and I just can’t thank him enough for giving us a chance of purchasing these dogs.
It’s really hard to buy good dogs no matter how much money you have, but us small trainers don’t normally see these, they normally go straight to the big boys. I’ve a good set owners and they are supporting me and I’ve a couple more looking, so hopefully there will be another nice addition or two in the near future."
Watch this space!
