BRILLIANT BREEDING SUCCESS FROM MATTHEWS

Peter Farrell

The Matthews Family are certainly no strangers to success on both track and field, however, Saturday night saw a particularly special feat achieved in the semi finals of the Con & Annie Kirby Memorial at Limerick Greyhound Stadium.

The Newry kennel will of course be represented in the €80,000 to the winner Classic by their rising star, Merits Inclusion, and he will bid to seal a hat-trick of Kirby victories for Brendan Matthews after both Boylesports Hero and Cable Bay landed the prestigious event in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The June 22’ son of Dromana Bucko and Million Dreams is indeed the youngster of the lineup and he will bid to make it three wins on the spin after winning his quarter final in 28.31 and his semi final in 28.24. Indeed, it will be quite an achievement from the Northern kennel should Merits Inclusion manage to get his head in front, however, from a breeding point of view, there has already been huge success.

It’s worth noting that while Merits Inclusion may be the only tracker in the lineup that carries the Matthews name, there will also be a strong interest in the fortunes of Daniel O’Rahilly’s Knockeen Dazzler, who incidentally landed the opening semi final on Saturday night at Limerick. A son of Laughil Blake, the dam of the March speedster is in fact Love Island, who is a full sister of Million Dreams (Dam of Merits Inclusion) and in turn also owned by Brendan Matthews.

It certainly is quite the achievement from the Matthews’ to have bred both of the Con & Annie Kirby semi final winners and the duo will head into next Saturday’s decider with massive claims of landing the eventual top prize. Given their rich pedigree, which has already produced a Kirby winner in Cable Bay, it would take a brave individual to bet against history repeating itself.