BERT LANDS THURLES FEATURE IN BRILLIANT STYLE

Peter Farrell

The final of the €1,500-to-the-winner Alpha Drives and Switchgear A6/A7 525 served as the feature at Thurles on Saturday night and it went the way of Bogger Bert, who made it four wins from just eight starts in what proved a blanket finish.

Owned by Liam Peacock, this is the latest batch of ‘Boggers’ from the Peacock kennel and the prolific Bogger Bonnie continues to throw smart greyhounds, evident from this performance by Bogger Bert. A winner of his semi-final outing in a brisk 29.24, the March pup didn’t break too fluently from a tricky draw in four and, after early traffic, sat some ten lengths adrift entering the back straight.

The head of proceedings was dominated by both Hello Oppy and Knockroe Jersey as they went toe-to-toe. However, once getting loose, ‘Bert’ improved at a rate of knots. Halving the deficit within a couple of strides, the son of Bogger Scoobie looked a huge threat rounding the bottom two bends and his task was complete as he wore down both Hello Oppy and Knockroe Jersey approaching the line.

The judge was called into action but the result was never in doubt as Bogger Bert held a brilliant inside line to score by a head from Knockroe Jersey in second. The time was 29.61 .20s, though this was largely academic as it was clear to see that this greyhound would have gone considerably faster with a clear passage.