Gone to the dogs: Five Offaly Christmas winners as Birr dog takes final in Cork

Christmas week saw limited racing with meetings both sides of Christmas. There was one brilliant Offaly stake winner in Cork as well as a bumper night of finals in Shelbourne to conclude their 2025 racing programme. Mullingar once again provided us with a few Faithful County winners with racing there only on Sunday.

Early Week Racing

Monday, Enniscorthy, the concluding semi-final of the The Lord Kennels Open Unraced stake which was deferred from last Monday after a hare malfunction. Any Means took the spoils here and will go into Monday’s final with every chance when winning in 28.93 by a neck at 6/1 for Patsy and Sheila Morrissey.

Saturday Racing

Curraheen Park, Cork, final of the Elite Contracting Design Open 575. There was a fantastic Offaly winner as Yorkie Ollie (Magical Bale-Outdoor Roller) won the €5k first prize for Birr owners Michael Hennessy and Adrian Sheils. The Graham Holland trained November ‘23 dog promised so much as a pup but for a serious of unfortunate injuries would surely have been a dog contesting all the top stakes including the Derby. His winning time of 30.95 was top class winning by six lengths at 5/1. Fine performance. Da Tapper Flynn was second for Pat Kiely and received a cheque for €2k.

Limerick, final of the Con Murphy Bookmaker A1 Stake. The €3.3k purse was won by Foxwood MacGowan (Bockos Jon Jo-Bockos Brandy) for Denis McGrath in 28.83 by four lengths at a very generous 10/1.

There were a host of finals at headquarters with one worth €15k, one at €5, two at €3k, three at €2k and one at €2.5k all to the winners. Highlights, the final of the Bernard Barry Christmas Open Oaks was won by Magical On Fire (Ballymac Cashout-Burgess Sarah) with the €15k pot going to Pat Guilfoyle. Her winning time of 27.99 is sensational for this time of year winning by six lengths at 1/1 fav. Add this €15k to her Laurels win she has now amassed just under €50k in her eight career wins so far. Another super training performance. Aghadown Flight was second for Holland winning a prize of €4K.

The €5k to the winner final was the Bernard Barry AAO Open 525, when Cheque For Cash (Dromano Bucko- Paradise Asia) won in 28.43 by two lengths at 3/1 for Karol Ramsbottom. This dog is also a great money spinner as he has now over €30k in winning prize money.

The first of the two €3k finals were the Open Sprint where Woodcliff Duke won for Rathkenny trainer Martin Lanney in 18.95 by one length again at a big price of 12/1. The second was the AO 550 where Kereight Pimple won for Aidan Denton in a decent 29.89 by four lengths at 5/4 fav.


Sunday Racing
Four brilliant Offaly winners at the matinee SIS meeting in Mullingar with a great treble for Clara owner P.J. Cleary. In an A7 grade Lahinch Ayda was his first winner in 30.04 (50 slow) by four lengths at 10/3. Second winner was Apache Robin in an A6 contest in 30.10 (50 slow) by one length at 9/2. The Clara owners final winner was in an A4 race as Apache Gem had his eleventh career win in 29.96 (50 slow) by one length at 9/4.  Our final winner of the week was in an A5 race as Horseleap Billy won for Sean McGuinness in a fine 29.82 (50 slow) by three lengths at 13/8 fav. 

Upcoming Events.
Monday, numerous finals in Newbridge with a big Offaly interest and final of the Lord Kennels Open Unraced in Enniscorthy with both these meetings completed by time we go to print. Shelbourne Park will now only be on Saturday nights for next couple of months and nationwide it will also be a much curtailed programme.

Tribune Offaly Dog Of The Week

Easy decision this week as Yorkie Ollie was a six length winner of the valuable Elite Contracting Design Open 575 in Cork on Saturday for Birr owners Michael Hennessy and Adrian Sheils. Fantastic result and hopefully now stay free of injuries and will definitely contest all the major classics in 2026. Great win.


Offaly Winners
Five Offaly winners this week, well done to all involved.

Next Week's Column

Next week we will go over the highlights from 2025 including all the Offaly dogs who won stakes throughout the year. We had another bumper year with twelve dogs winning stakes of various types and value. We will also have our Offaly Dog Of The Year which once again will be a tough decision to make.

Gone to the dogs would like to wish all our readers a happy and safe on the roads new year.