WONDERFUL LYNCHY BOWS OUT

Ian Fortune

An email dropped over the weekend confirming the news that one of the most consistent and thoroughly likeable greyhounds of the past three years plus, Lynchy Boy, has been retired.

Anyone that has paid attention to the track scene over that time would have certainly come across the wonderfully consistent son of Confident Rankin and Boozed Bubble and would be aware of his many wonderful traits.

A natural starter with a real determination to succeed, he rarely let a poor draw get in the way of his progress. Known as one of the tightest railers in training, he cut the nose off many of the best in training in his long career.

But he wasn’t always lucky with the draw. In fact, of his twenty two career wins, only seven came when wearing the red jacket. His first career win came around Clonmel in March 2021, clocking 30.10 for 525yds after a traffic marred passage.

A couple of months later, he claimed his second victory in a quick 28.77 at the same venue. He was now starting to really find his feet and quickly moved up the grades to a point where he emerged a brilliant winner of the Greyhound & Petworld A1 Stakes at Curraheen Park (Now the Kasco A1 Derby).

This earned him a crack at the 2021 Laurels where he went deep, eventually going out in the semis but not before beating the eventual winner One Time Only in one of the early rounds before following up the quarter finals.

For the next two years he seemed to turn up at veery dance, showing his fleet of foot movements at boxes countless times and often finishing in front of many of Ireland’s best. He ended 2021 with a fine success in the Paula Bergin Memorial 550 at Waterford before starting 2022 with another fine victory in the Elite Canine Transport A1 Stake at Clonmel.   

That was his last silverware of 2022 although he did win in some very fast times around Shelbourne Park, while also posting a scorching 28.82 around Thurles in the opening round of the Tipperary Cup.

But his biggest career win came earlier this year when he emerged a tremendous winner of the Frightful Flash Kennels McCalmont Cup.

He continued to run in top company through to the summer when his last race came in the semi-finals of the valuable John Mitchell Bookmaker & KGOBA A1 525. He found bad traffic in this contest and sustained a career ending hock injury in the process.

Thankfully, Catriona Campion has confirmed that Lynchy Boy has made a full recovery and is destined for a career at stud. Paraic Campion has been involved in greyhounds for many years, trained countless winners and will be best remembered for steering the legendary Bonus Prince to three Cesarewitch titles in a row around the old Navan circuit in the late nineties but rarely has he had a more consistent and dependable greyhound that Lynchy Boy.

His best times included a 28.37 return at Shelbourne Park as well as a number of sub 28.50 runs, while he also won two €5k competitions, amassing a total of almost €23,000 in prizemoney through his long career.

But for those that followed him and watched him week after week, he will be remembered as the consummate professional with real early speed and class. He didn’t know how to run a bad race and that is all you want in a racing greyhound. The best of luck to “Lynchy” in the future. May he have a long and healthy retirement and, hopefully, throw a few as good as himself.