There were many 2026 BoyleSports Irish Greyhound Derby first-round highlights and Friday night saw Bochos Diamond remind us he is not a spent force yet.
The quickest of the night was achieved by Solo And Go who lived up to his name in 29.27 seconds.
English Derby finalist Ballymac Ralf as well as Lennies Dream were both eliminated in this initial round.
The fastest sectional time was accomplished by Ballyea Warrior in 3.35 seconds when winning from the fast-finishing Glangar Kane in heat 8.
Saturday night’s proceedings kicked off with a scintillating performance from the ante-post favourite Bouncing Monarch.
Demolition job
He enhanced his reputation with a demolition job on his rivals by a margin of 11 and a half lengths in 29.10.
His emphatic victory has seen his odds reduced to around the 5/1 mark. The fastest winning time was matched later by Sleight Of Hand in the penultimate heat.
In contrast to heat 13, the last race of the night produced the biggest shock of the round with Ballymac Setanta unable to land a blow following scrimmaging at the opening bend.
Even Lennies Eddie only just qualified in fourth by a head on the line.
The forecast paid £334.10 and the tricast a massive £1839.50!
The layers probably had the upper hand after the first round was completed.
In total, the odds-on chances obliged in five races with seven losers over the two nights.
At evens or odds against including joint-favourites, there were four winners out of the other 12 heats.
The winning box numbers were as follows: trap 1(four), trap 2(six), trap 3(three), trap 4(none!), trap 5(four) and most of all trap 6(seven).
Second round
The draw for the next round followed racing on Saturday as is the norm in Ireland.
After several seeding changes, the qualifiers consisted of 68 inside railers with 14 middle and the same number of wides.
This meant the last two heats have a pair of middles with no wides, and heats one to four include five inside runners. All the wides automatically went into trap six of course.
There are numerous mouth-watering clashes but as usual the first-round winners are not spread out evenly.
Bouncing Monarch has drawn two other winners but the toughest on paper is heat 11 with four successes.
Add Ballycowen Frank coming out of trap one to the equation and try working out that tricast.
Another heat worth mentioning is the fifth – it might only be contested by one previous winner Kapuka Coley, but there are only five spots difference between all six sectional times so could get a little congested approaching the opening turn.
Ratings
The second-round race ratings are still compiled on a race-by-race basis.
The next round should be more informative when collectively every greyhound is assessed individually.
However, at this early stage, Bouncing Monarch is top which comes as no surprise.
Best odds quoted were correct at the time of consultation. Good luck to connections in the second round and its three qualifiers all the way from now on
