Tipperary greyhound trainer lands the winner of the Bar One Racing Irish Laurels title

The Graham Holland trained High Trend was crowned the 2023 Bar One Racing Irish Laurels champion on Saturday night at a busy Curraheen Park Greyhound Stadium.

This talented son of Droopys Sydney – Beaming Smasher defied his generous odds of 8/1 when scooping up the €30,000 prize but it wasn’t an easy victory.

Owned by the R-T-And-C syndicate, High Trend had to dig deep as the Owen McKenna trained Role Model set the pace early from trap four.

Down the back straight it was nip and tuck between Role Model and High Trend with the latter getting the better run along the inside before going on to score by half a length to the fast-finishing Easy Razzle for local trainer John A. Linehan in a time of 28.31.

It wasn’t to be for the frontrunners in the market as the 2/1 joint favourites Jacktavern Bolt and Carrick Aldo both found traffic problems with Bar One Racing representative John McDonnell confirming it was a great result for their book.

It was a marvellous fifth Irish Laurels win for Graham Holland who topped off the night with six winners which included Romeo Kingpin who collected €10,000 by winning the Michael ‘Bart’ Leahy Memorial.

Rathdown Molly was a deserving winner of the Irish Laurels Consolation worth €2,000. Despite a tough draw for the inside runner, she battled hard to beat Ballymun Boy who made most of the running.

Molly won by a length in 28.31 for trainer Marie Gilbert and owner Bill Mulholland.

With the 2023 St. Leger still to come, we will be treated to some more top class racing in the coming weeks along with the Shelbourne Puppy Oaks that commences Saturday, October 21st and the second round of the RPGTV Fair Warrior Open 400 at Mullingar Greyhound Stadium this Sunday.

Sarah Kinsella, spokesperson for Greyhound Racing Ireland, said: “What a tremendous night at Curraheen Park. High Trend was an outstanding winner for Graham Holland and the trainer polished off the night by recording six winners across the card. We would like to thank our sponsors Bar One Racing for the generosity and support as well as the Friends & Supporters of Cork Greyhound Racing.”