Super Shark is Music to local Ears

For generations of greyhound racing enthusiasts, the Tipperary Cup at Thurles has represented the pinnacle of sporting aspirations and having grown up with their racing interests fostered at the Premier venue, a brace of young local trainers now stand just two steps away from realising a fervently sought childhood goal.

The career path that has led Tina & Tommy Morrissey’s Great Blue Shark (Confident Rankin/Lady Midnight) to the semi-final of this year’s event has been well charted in these pages and the wonderful track favourite scripted another almost incredulous paragraph in his personal story when remaining unbeaten in a high quality victory on Saturday to remain unbeaten in the Tipperary Cup.

Still officially a graded runner at A1, the most popular racer at Thurles remained very much an outsider for his second round heat with time to find on the clock after his opening 29.23 (-40) success. However, the Shark again showed little respect for illustrious rivals when breaking well from his Trap 4 draw, he crucially outpaced those to his inner which allowed him to command the rails position despite being led by rivals to his outer on the run to the first bend. Railing tightly, he would avoid any bumping as others suffered on the approach to the back-straight and seizing his opportunity to hit the front off the second turn, the brave blue skipped clear on the run to halfway. Four lengths to the good, the Morrissey entertainer would never cede such an advantage from this point and he completed victory over fast first round winner Melodys Joe with a comfortable three and half lengths to spare while posting 29.30 (-40).

That winning time will again make Great Blue Shark an outsider ahead of the semi-finals but it must be repeated again this week, never underestimate the Shark!