OWEN COMPLETES A CENTURY

Ian Fortune

To use a cricket term, Owen Doyle completed ‘a century not out’ at Enniscorthy on Thursday evening with the success of the rapidly improving Koba in the second race on the card.

Coming home clear in 29.17, the promising young daughter of Ballymac Kingdom provide Owen with his one hundredth winner as a trainer.

It’s an incredible achievement for a man that only keeps four or five racers at any one time. Owen, who hails from Gorey, co. Wexford, has always been involved in the dogs with his father keeping a couple of coursing dogs back in the day.

Owen actually trained his first winner at the tender age of fifteen with Always Sober, who was owned jointly by his father and Tom Piper Doyle. After a spell out of the sport, he got back into greyhound racing around twelve years ago when Martin Lanney had him school a few.

But Owen made his biggest move some five years ago when taking out his private license and it’s been the most enjoyable half decade. His first good win came with Daniels Dream winning a valuable sweepstake at Enniscorthy in late 2016 and there have been a few more in the subsequent years.

Some of his best days have come with the victories of Benman, Kingsisland King, Jacks Lockup, while his most recent notable victory came with Ridsdale Lady winning a 575yd sweep at Shelbourne Park in the summer.

Given the limited number of greyhounds in his care, it’s quite an achievement to reach 100 winners. It was one of his owners Rob Howe that alerted me to the milestone, while it was also noted by the Enniscorthy social media team.

Owen certainly deserves credit and it was fitting he completed the milestone under the shadow of the Blackstair’s Mountains. Said Owen, “It was great to get my hundredth winner at my local track Enniscorthy and I was also delighted that it came with a bitch that I own myself with one my owners Les Bridges.”

Once again, a huge congratulations to Owen on his milestone and we look forward to marking 200 winners in the near future.