Remember When - English Irish Double

The English and Irish Greyhound Derby Double

History tells us that four greyhounds have successfully defended their English Derby titles but only one has ever achieved the English/Irish double. This year’s ante post betting suggests that Bockos Diamond has a decent chance of becoming the second.  

So how many have tried and how close have they come? 

We don’t have figures to show every attempt though we can reveal the number who have come comparatively close in the decades since both events were first staged. 

In fact, 39 different hounds have reached both English and Irish Derby finals and there have been some hard luck stories long the way. 

Take dogs like Ballymac Vic who reached two Irish Derby finals and one English decider without making the forecast. Krug Ninety Five did something similar. 

Myrtown started favourite for two English Derby Finals and reached the 1974 Irish equivalent and was beaten in all three.  

Then there are the winners, and there is a comparatively small band of Irish Derby winners who have fared well in England. 

Yet they started out so well when Jack Bob, winner of the *second Irish Derby in 1929. His English Derby efforts were thwarted when he was a well beaten fourth behind a certain Mick The Miller in 1930. 

It was more than half a century later that Northern Irish hound Make History landed the 1988 final at Shelbourne Park having only recently finished fourth to Hit The Lid in the Wimbledon equivalent. 

Batties Rocket was born and reared in York but registered as Irish bred by Alice Swaffield, a care home matron, originally from Tipperary. 

Rocket went on to land the 1995 Irish Derby for Matt O’Donnell where he beat litter sister Batties Spirit by three quarters of a length. Spirit went on the Irish Leger. 

Rocket was despatched to Wimbledon and eventually finished third behind two British bred registered hounds, Shanless Slippy, who was reared in Ireland, and Night Trooper. The winner was trained by Matt’s sister-in-law, Dolores Ruth. 

Razldazl George arrived at Wimbledon in 2011, fresh from a short head defeat in the Easter Cup. He showed plenty of ability at Plough Lane and was 7/2 for the final where he finished fifth behind winning favourite Taylors Sky. 

Dolores Ruth’s hound returned to Shelbourne where he just held off Dream Walker by a short head to land the 2011 Irish Derby. 

A year later he was back in Dublin where he finished third in the 2012 Irish final behind Skywalker Puma and Cuil Cougar, both trained by Dolores’ sister Frances O’Donnell. 

When it comes to near misses and finishing order, they don’t come much closer Lilacs Luck who won the 1945 Irish Derby at Shelbourne Park. Sold to England, he went on to finish runner-up to Mondays News, albeit by a well beaten seven lengths. 

By coincidence, all five of the Irish Derby winners happened to be brindle. 

(*The 1928-31 Irish Derbys were staged at Harolds Cross and not registered as ‘National’ Derbys) 

The English Derby winners tackling Shelbourne are more numerous, and the first to have a serious crack at it was the superstar of the 1958 White City final, Pigalle Wonder.  

However, the multi track record breaker was four and a half years old and way past his best when he took his chance in the 1960 Irish Derby. Although he reached the final, he was a shadow of his former self. He duly finished last and was retired. 

While most English Derby winners were based in Britain, and travelled to Ireland with a Derby win already on their CV, it was The Grand Canal who broke the mould.  

Paddy Dunphy’s raider, third in the 1961 Irish Derby Final, then justified 6/4 favouritism when landing the 1962 English equivalent at White City. 

Hack Up Chieftain was the final choice of the 48 seeded acceptors for the 1964 English Derby and a 20/1 outsider when winning it. Not a particularly obvious choice to take on the Irish in their own backyard but he nevertheless made the 1965 Irish Final and finished third at odds of 100/7. 

The John Hayes-trained Indian Joe was still a pup when he contested the 1979 Irish Derby and finished last. Eleven months later, and bought by bookmaker Alfie McLean for a reputed £25K (equivalent to £194K today) Joe shared joint favouritism with Hurry On Bran in the 1980 White City Final and the pair duly took the forecast places. Bran went on to contest the ’80 Irish final won by Suir Miller. 

Six years later it was the turn of Tico, trained by Arthur Hitch, bred by James Morrissey and reared by a couple of brothers from Ballyvalican, near Dungarvan, Sean and Michael Dunphy: aka the ‘Droopys lads’. 

With the jury still out on Wimbledon as a Derby venue following the win of local stayer Pagan Swallow the previous year, Pall Mall winner Tico was the real deal. He was only beaten once in the event and won the final by more than five lengths in 28.69. 

The Alan Smee owned black was also hugely impressive at Shelbourne and was just outside the track record in the semis. He started 4/5 favourite to win the final but missed his break and finished third behind Kyle Jack and the dog who he had beaten in the Wimbledon final, Murlens Slippy. 

Tico was immediately retired to stud with a race record of 17 wins from 23 races. 

Record breaking English Derby trainer Charlie Lister was always going to fancy a crack at the Irish Derby and in 1997, he sent out one of the great English Derby winners in Some Picture. 

The wide running black had gone unbeaten through the English Derby: 1/6f, 1/6f, 1/3f, 4/7f, 4/7f and then at 8/13f with a six length win in the final. Charlie’s first! 

Things started off well for the ante post favourite for the Irish Derby with two flying heat wins. But then he started to falter. 

Rumours from the Lister kennel, temporarily based at Ballyvalican was that the dog had been off colour. He nevertheless made it through to possibly the greatest Irish Derby Final of recent years.  

Lister’s big black shared 9/4 favouritism with Vintage Prince, followed at 3/1 by Spiral Nikita, 4/1 Toms The Best, 16/1 Right To Apply and 25/1 Jokers Run. 

The story of the final is one of Some Picture (T5) colliding with Spiral Nikita (T4) and Toms The Best (T6) winning the final . . . but more of him later. 

Not only had Some Picture missed out on the chance of the first ever English/Irish double, it would have been an even greater feat as he had also won the Scottish Derby earlier in the year. 

In our recent piece about double English Derby winners, we featured both Rapid Ranger (2000/2001) and Westmead Hawk (2005/2006). 

Both also made Irish Derby Finals.  

Charlie Lister’s Rapid Ranger contested the 2000 Irish Derby and won a second round heat in 29.98 and a semi-final in 29.94. 

Judicial Pride, unbeaten in the event to date, set a new track record of 29.66 in his semi. 

The pair dominated the betting for the final with Judicial Pride going to traps as the 6/4f and the badly drawn Rapid Ranger (7/4) running from trap five.

The semi-final form was duly stamped in the final with Judicial Pride winning by almost four lengths in 29.68. 

Westmead Hawk’s Irish Derby attempt came between his two Derby wins. The ante-post favourite took a while to settle to the Shelbourne circuit but started to come good by the quarter finals. 

His 29.66 run was just nine spots slower than the quickest of the quartet, record by Droopys Maldini. 

Maldini stepped it up in the semi-final with a 29.47 run with Hawk, practically walking away from traps, beaten two lengths. The other semi went to Maldini’s brother Droopys Marco in 29.73. 

Maldini went to traps as the 4/5f for the final, Hawk was 9/4 second favourite. It proved a messy race with 10/1 shot He Said So leading all the way in 29.66. Billys Playback (T3) moved off at the bend where Hawk was ‘badly bumped’. 

The most recent near miss was Paul Hennessy’s Jaytee Jet who won the last ever Derby Final at Wimbledon in thrilling style. 

The man from Gowran tends to choose a certain type for his English Derby raids – strong finishers – and Jet entirely fitted that bill. 

Like many with that running style, Jet was only able to show his true ability when making an uncharacteristic fast start. That happened in the third round of the 2016 Derby when he clocked 28.01 for the 480m. (The track record was held by Eden The Kid in 27.95). 

Beaten in his following two runs, most notably on the wrong end of a three-quarter length match up with Droopys Roddick in the semi finals, the 37 kilo Jet reversed the form in the final when clocking the second fastest Derby winning time at Wimbledon, 28.22.  

(Only record breaking Taylors Sky – 28.17 – went quicker). 

Jet went lame in the same year’s Irish Derby and only had two races in the following ten months before at attempt at the first Towcester Derby in 2017. 

When trainer Hennessy decided to enter the four year old in the 2017 Irish Derby, it seemed to defy obvious logic – but Paul knew best. 

Although he was clearly past his best, Jet made it through to the final and ran a very creditable fourth behind Good News. 

He was then retired. 

All of which leads us on to the history making Toms The Best. 

Bought from a newspaper advert from breeder Ian Greaves by businessman Eddie Shotton, Toms The Best was trained by Nick Savva and almost made the 1997 Derby Final. 

The fastest quarter-final winner in 28.41, he finished fourth, beaten three-quarters of a length by Heres Andy in the semis and duly landed the Derby Invitation race on final night in 28.42, 19 spots slower than Some Picture in the main event. 

He followed that up by winning the Monmore Gold Cup in 28.21, in a final that contained both Heres Andy and Tom’s kennelmate Larkhill Jo and then went unbeaten through the Sussex Cup at Hove, starting at 2/5fav in the final. 

In contrast, Tom’s 1997 Irish Derby campaign could barely have been less impressive: 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd. 

On final night though, the slowest breaker in the field came out alongside Vintage Prince and actually led into the first bend. 

Joe Kenny’s Vintage Prince took the shorter route on the rail and seized the lead as the Savva runner ran wide. 

Prince retained the lead until the run-in as Toms The Best railed off the last bend and surged again on the run-in to win by a length in 30.09. 

By comparison the 1998 campaign didn’t go so well. 

After dominating the Blue Riband at Wembley, the 11/10f was beaten in the final by He Knows. 

He then headed to Shawfield for the Scottish Derby. He reached the final where he was “CrdRnUp&1,RnOn” and beaten a length by kennelmate Larkhill Jo. 

It was then back to Wimbledon where things started badly with a 2/5f defeat in the opening round. 

But then things started to improve with four consecutive wins and then the biggest break of the lot. 

Tom’s biggest danger was the Patsy Byrne-trained Greenwood Flyer. She had shown tremendous pace earlier in the year to be beaten a short head in the Arc Final at Walthamstow. 

But after showing tremendous pace to catch leader Tullerboy Cash in the Derby semis, she turned her head on the run-in and was disqualified. Her winning time was 28.65, compared to Tom’s 28.74. 

So only five hounds paraded at Wimbledon on Saturday 27 June 1998. It had been a stormy summer’s day and trainer Savva had been concerned that Tom was terrified of thunder and lightning. 

But as the evening wore on, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone. 

This is how we reported the final in Greyhound Star: 

“You're simply the best” belted out Tina Turner before the start of the 1998 William Hill Derby final. Within minutes, Tom had proved he was - writes Floyd Amphlett. 

Toms The Best became the first greyhound in 70 years of racing to complete the English/Irish Derby double with the performance of quality and complete supremacy. 

Inter track betting had reduced the final crowd, though it was still substantial and that special buzz of the Derby final night remained intact. 

A huge cheer greeted the dog’s arrival on the track. In turn, they were presented to the crowd and the biggest chair of the lot went up for the black jacketed favourite. 

The place continued to hum as the dogs were paraded and then another roar hit the air as the field were ordered behind the traps.  

There was a wall of sound as a bell sounded and the hare started to move. At trap rise, an explosion of sound.  

Tuesdays Davy was the first to show on the outside with Honour And Glory well away on the rails. Tom was fourth away as Jaspers Boy missed it completely. 

The race would be decided at the first bend as Tullerboy Cash collided with Honour And Glory and Jaspers Boy.  

In the blink of an eye Tuesday Davy was three clear and probably the cleverest tracker I've ever seen was in second place. In an instant he was recognised by the crowd. The race would be won by Toms The Best.  

Tom set off after Davy with the crowd now screaming for victory. He had reduced the gap to a length at the third bend but Davey was still battling away gamely in front. 

But no greyhound in training could take an inch out of Toms The Best from the three-quarter mark and the big black loomed alongside coming around the last.  

He straightened up as Tuesdays ran wide and every post saw Tom pulling further away. At the beam, the margin was just over four lengths on a track that have been saturated with rain in the early evening, the time was a modest 28.75.  

Sadly for the remainder of the field and their connections, the race was a non-event. 

Despite the extra room due to an empty trap and a generally favourable draw, the three remaining runners could not overcome the early trouble and was strung out as they crossed the line. 

Ten minutes later, in a move that his beloved Sunderland FC were not able to emulate last season, owner Eddie Shotton hoisted the silver trophy to the sky and the crowd roared its approval. Trainer Nick Savva was missing. It was a couple of minutes before he appeared at the first bend and made his way to the presentation. 

Virtually as one, the stadium broken into applause. A hugely popular owner, a highly respected trainer and a true champion of a greyhound. 

As a night to remember, it was simply the best.