Greyhound trainer Paul Hennessy is going for glory in the BoyleSports Irish Greyhound Derby this weekend with his runner, BoyleSports Bob a dog co-owned by BoyleSports John Boyle.
Ahead of the Final Hennessy argues that BoyleSports Bob’s odds of 14/1 are far too big while also gives us an insightful look into this training methods and what it takes to train a dog competing including artisan breakfasts, messages and magnetic muscle boxes!
BoyleSports Bob has a lot of ability
His preparation since last Saturday has been very good. We had a bit of a hiccup or two coming into the quarter final, but we had all clear for the final and we are expecting him to step up here in the Final.
He is a very good dog; he was second in the English Derby and that takes some doing. We kept him back for the Irish one and he has reached the final, he has a lot of ability so hopefully he will put his best paw forward and give it a good rattle.
The way we train them for a long competition like this is by maintaining them at about 80 or 90 per cent through the competition then, if you get to the business end, you have more to offer. A dog can take a race a week, a horse can’t but dogs are more than capable, so you balance out your in between exercises to cope with the stress of a race.
Keeping a dog ticking over from week to week is no big deal and if you are working at 80 per cent, you're not pushing them to the limits in between, the races bring them forward. He has lots of natural ability. It really comes down to the ability of the dog and not the man behind the scenes, that’s the way it works.
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The Regime Of A Racing Athlete
We have an all-weather gallop for the dogs. I call them through the whistle, some might use a drag and a lure but on those you’re asking them to work at full intensity. We don’t, we work them easier for longer which is by whistling them. Most of the dogs come up at 80 per cent effort and I like that, leaving the rest for the race.
After races and in recovery, we massage the dogs and then we have these things called Porta Mags, you pop them in there and it creates a magnetic field which improves their blood flow while they are relaxing. It creates the field in a small area, increases the blood flow in their muscles and it is very nice for them. We just call it putting them in the box! It’s a training aid, it just relaxes them really well and if there are any niggles it helps heal them, it is also a really good relaxation for them.
This goes alongside taking them for walks and putting them on the gallops.
In fairness, you do have radio’s on in the kennels too. The idea of music is that if anything is going on around the yard, it is not all silence and then they start barking if they hear something, the music just keeps some sort of racket going on for them when they are in the kennels.
A Racing Diet
You wouldn’t feed them the way I feed myself - with takeaways and snack boxes! They are on a racing diet - in the morning they start off with porridge, yoghurt, honey and sardines. The porridge is brilliant as it is a slow release of energy - if you get up in the morning and have a bowl of cornflakes at 7am then you’ll be hungry again by 11am, eat porridge and you won’t. It is a slow release, not a huge burst, then it lasts throughout the day.
I would eat the sardines too! You can have them in ketchup or sunflower oil - there are plenty of benefits for them! In the evening they will have some brown bread as a base, and then add meat or chicken and vegetables with a broth for flavouring as well.
It’s like looking after a human athlete and that’s what they are - athletes. You treat them as such, it is about keeping them fit and the fitter they are. The better they are, it is very much the same as human athletes.
You can overdo it by over feeding them of course but we have our own way of doing it, we have been doing this for 40 years. There are loads of different ways, when we started training we had a different way to the older generation and that worked for them, but this works for us.
John Boyle is having a great spin with BoyleSports Bob
I have won it [the Irish Greyhound Derby] before and placed in plenty of times as well. It is wonderful for the guys that own this dog, John Boyle being one of them. He owns half the dog with another man and the two of them are having a great time. There is great excitement for them to have a dog as good as this and they are enjoying the spin.
He’s a friend and at the end of the day I train the dog, that’s as far as it goes. We have been at this for a long time so having the good ones give you such a buzz. It is lovely to have one in the final of the Derby, hopefully he can deliver on that.
I think he is a big price; I can’t understand the price. The favourite has been brilliant all the way through, and he has brilliant training, nine times out of ten he’ll be out and gone but BoyleSports Bob is not far behind him in my opinion, and I want to coax a bit more out of him.
The dog will deliver on the night, I think he is way overpriced. My job is to get him to give his best performance of the competition next Saturday night and that is what I intend to do.
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