The Harlequin Syndicate announce the retirement of Dahy
With an exceptional strike rate of almost 50%, Harlequin Dahy won races with a remarkable consistency for his owners, with brute early pace his trademark. He has been retired.
Harlequin Dahy has been retired
The Harlequin Syndicate is to home its Harlequin Dahy after the ex-Swindon runner failed to recover enough from a hock injury to return to the track.
“It’s with great sadness we’ve had to announce that Harlequin Dahy has been retired from racing because we know he couldn’t reach the heights he had,” said Harlequin organiser Dave Wilson.
“Danno, as he was known to his owners, suffered a hock injury at Swindon in an A1 in December. We gave him every chance to recover and he was seen by two different vets but after further X-rays we’ve drawn stumps on his racing career.
“Danno was purchased unraced in Ireland and was initially aimed at the Rural Unraced Stake at Clonmel. We hoped he’d be a nice 500m dog but it turned out he was all early pace!
“Harlequin Dahy made his debut at Swindon in A5 and ended it in A1. He had career record in the UK of 31 races with 15 wins and six seconds with a massive 48.39 per cent strike-rate. That’s huge for a graded greyhound.
"Dahy was a one-off dog for the Harlequin Syndicate and his wins-to-runs ratio will probably never be matched again by a graded greyhound. His early pace was outstanding to watch and, considering his trapping was never the best, he was seldom led to the bend.
“He recorded a 15.25sec at Swindon with a 142 Greyhound Data rating.
“We had planned to move him to Central Park after Swindon closed to get him used to the track for the (Arc) Silver Salver and other sprint competitions.
“All the owners involved in Harlequin Dahy would like to wish Danno all the best in his retirement now and would also like to express their personal thanks to trainer Paul Foster and his team for all he did with Dahy and for all the wins he gained and hope Paul is enjoying his retirement as well.”
