This article is from page 28 of the 2008-09-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 28 JPG
ONE of West Clare’s greatest sport- ing heroes returned to his home patch yesterday as the county’s most successful dog trainer, Pat Curtin, returned to his roots at Mullagh Na- tional School.
Pat, who himself attended the na- tional school in years gone by, re- turned to where his nephews now go to school to show the students his recently won trophy for the Irish Greyhound Derby.
Earlier this month Shelbourne As- ton, which is trained and co-owned by Pat, picked up the €175,000 first prize for winning the Paddypower.
com Irish Derby. This was Clare’s first Irish Derby success in 39 years and has already been described as one of the greatest finals ever with Shelbourne Aston passing out four other dogs in the last 75 yards.
The victory insured both dog and trainers place in history as Shel- bourne Aston became only the third greyhound ever to win both the Champion Stakes and Irish Derby.
“It’s great to have Pat back down to us. He is a past pupil of the school and he now has the very successful Ballygodoon Stud up in Tipperary,” said Connie Sexton of Mullagh Na- tional School.
‘His two nephews now go to school
with us here in Mullagh. All the school is very proud of him. It’s great to have someone who came out of Mullagh do so well. His father was always a great greyhound man here in the village as well so there is a ereat family tradition in it.
‘There is a great interest in grey- hounds locally and Pat would be a relation of the Doherty’s in Coora- clare who were the last people from Clare to win the Derby.”
Pat holds joint ownership of the dog in partnership with Noel Hehir and Margaret Montgomerie. Shelbourne Aston is the son of Just The Best and Queen Survivor is now expected in the English St Leger at Wimbledon.
‘No other dog has ever done the Irish Derby and the St Leger back-to- back and that’s something I’d love to do. And the Leger is over 660 yards which would suit the dog down to the ground,’ Pat said after the race.
“But we’ve still to make up our minds on what exactly we’re going to do. Over the past two days, there’s been a lot of interest from Australia and the United States, but we haven’t made any decision yet.”