Vintage Diamond sparkles again to set Saturday's Derby standard

BOCKOS DIAMOND, the 2024 champion, re-affirmed that he is a major player in this year's BOYLE Sports Irish Greyhound Derby with another brilliant performance at Shelbourne Park on Saturday.

Graham Holland's star will officially be a veteran by the date of the final on 12th September but age is proving merely a number to him judged by his performance in the evening's heat 9 opener.

The 2/5 favourite sped to the opening bend, glided round it to go clear and was in splendid isolation afterwards as he went on to score by five lengths from Down Tothe Wire in a best-of-night 29.19sec.

The Laurence Jones-trained Sleight Of Hand followed up his joint-fastest first round win with a powerful victory in heat 11.

He was led early by Harvard Square but was soon tracking that rival and, despite slight crowding early in the back straight, was able to outspeed him into the third where he hit the front and went on to score by two and a half lengths in 29.27sec.

Michael O'Donovan followed his Friday double with another on Saturday, sending out Skywalker Bruno to land heat 10 in 29.34sec and immediately following up with Hackney Dancer (29.48sec) in heat 11 although his strongly-fancied Dundalk International winner Ballycowen Frank was eliminated in that contest.

Pat Guilfoyle was another to double up courtesy of Waitingforastar (29.36sec) and Wi Can James (29.21sec) while other heats went to Pat Buckley's Glengar Phantom and Dolores Ruth's Razldazl Loreal (both 29.48sec).