Derby win all the sweeter for familyÕs involvement

Date Published: {J}

Greyhound owner and breeder PJ Fahy has every reason to be cheerful after the Glenamaddy man, along with his son and trainer Conor, landed the Irish Greyhound Derby title with outsider Tyrur McGuigan at Shelbourne Park on Saturday night.

Two days later and the Fahy homestead was a ‘refugee camp’ – the myriad of revellers and party-goers remnants of the weekend’s celebrations. Of course, this was not the first time the Fahy family and the parish have had cause to rejoice. PJ Fahy has produced a long line of winners over the last decade or so, including the 2007 Irish Derby winner in Tyrur Rhino and the Scottish Derby victor in Tyrur Kieran the following year.

Yet, this was different. Others had contributed to those wins – for which Fahy greatly appreciates – but this latest derby success was all about the family. He owned and bred McGuigan while his 22-years-old son Conor – who only received his trainer’s licence five months ago – trained Ireland’s newest champion at the family’s homestead in Knockmaskehill.

No wonder then that it was a truly memorable night for the Fahy family, who watched in delight as Tyrur McGuigan pipped another of their dogs, overwhelming favourite Tyrur Big Mike, to take the €120,000 top prize at Shelbourne Park.

“I am not joking you, Saturday was the best day of my life,” says PJ. “I was delighted (with the win), especially for Conor, as it is his first year as a trainer. It is brilliant.”

In many respects, you would have to truly admire the faith PJ placed in his son. Over the last number of years, Fahy has availed of the services of some of the world’s top trainers, from Gort’s Noel Mullins to Kilkenny’s Paul Hennessy to England’s Charlie Lister. To hand over the duty, and his top dogs, to a novice underlined the confidence he placed in Conor’s ability.

“The big challenge for us was to have a bit of confidence to train dogs, because we did ask ourselves ‘would we be able to do it?’ We knew we had the quality of dogs and it would have been a shame, given the dogs we have, if we made a bags of it, for want of a better word. That was a big challenge for us.

“But I was very confident. We have a very good young lad in Conor, who has been around dogs since he was eight years of age. So, he has grown up with all our dogs, where Daryl (his eldest) was five or six years older – he was 13 or 14 – when we got our first dog in 1996.”

That first dog was Soviet Steel, which was trained by Mullins to win the Corrib Orange Open 550 at Galway in ‘98. “I suppose, 11 years ago we bought Pinhead. The first couple of years, we were just breeding a litter a year. It was only when we started breeding her daughters, around 2004 and 2005, that we really started to step things up.”

It was a decision that paid rich dividends as Pinhead produced some of the country’s top brood bitches, many of which, in turn, gave birth to numerous champions, including Tyrur Rhino (Tyrur Ted/Tyrur Marita) and Tyrur Kieran (Honcho Classic/Tyrur Dee), along with 2007 Cox Cup winner Tyrur Lee (Brett Lee/Tyrur Dee) and 2008 Easter Cup and Tote Gold Cup victor Tyrur Kenny (Top Honcho/Tyrur Pearl).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.