AMBER & WIRE LAND GALWAY FINALS

Peter Farrell

A couple of sweepstake finals featured at Galway Greyhound Stadium on Saturday night and the spoils went the way of Portumna Amber and On The Wire.

The feature was the final of the €1,250-to-the-winner Greyhounds Make Great Pets A3/A4 525 and, after some fine performances in defeat in the earlier rounds, Portumna Amber picked the perfect night to notch a second career win for John Sloyan and Mary Muldoon. Drawn in three, ‘Amber’ was a generous 4/1 chance at the off and, despite a moderate start, the fawn showed brilliant early speed to motor past both Balure Diamond and Heathlawn Ruby on the run-up. In doing so, the daughter of Orchestrate - Portumna Saphire quickly opened a two-length lead and she was always going to prove difficult to catch given her strong-running performances in recent weeks. Pulling clear, Sloyan’s runner extended her advantage around the bottom two bends before powering up the straight to record a six-length victory over Heathlawn Ruby in second. The time was 28.97 .10s.

Prior to that, On The Wire (Good Cody - Tromora Palm) landed the €1,000-to-the-winner Barking Buzz A5/A6 525 for owner Gerry O’Donoghue.

A winner of two of his previous three starts coming into the decider, On The Wire went to traps as a 5/2 chance and broke well to follow the 4/5 favourite, Pierview Big Rob, into the back straight. With the leader holding a three-length advantage, victory looked unlikely at the halfway mark, however, the aptly-named On The Wire railed brilliantly around the final bend before shooting up the inside of the fading Pierview Big Rob to snatch victory right on the line. Just half a length separated the pair at the finish, with the clock stopping at 29.33 .10s.