Zenith Racing is assembling a team of Greyhounds in Ireland and the UK, with a view to setting up a members club for like-minded greyhound enthusiasts.
The greatest there ever was. And an absolute gentleman too. One could write a book on some of the bets he took but those that know, know. Absolute Legend 🤩
Zenith Racing round up Lucky Charm Martha alert ☘️💥
The mighty Sultan is back 💪🏼 @HoveGreyhounds
Rebel opens her account 👏🏼 and so close for Ottoman over debut 750 @RomfordDogs
We headed down to @HoveRacing on Thursday with high anticipation of a decent night, with three runners by the superstar triumvirate @reesgreyhound Duke met a hot pot debutant, finishing just behind. He’s going to be a very good competition dog. He’s already done 29.15 ! Winning machine Rocket (he’s close to 50% !) missed his break got into position but was beaten out late. If he leads he wins.
The best was left to last with the mighty Sultan tracking magically before picking up the leader going round the 3-4 bend. If all our hounds had his intelligence ! Before the race we enjoyed our usual banter & greyhound round up with young Charlie Rees (this lad is well on his way to be a top trainer in his own right) and the fact that the Rees team had two runners in the last race. Being superstitious on top of enjoying the wind up, we asked with a straight face if Lucky Charm Martha (she should change her name officially to that) could lead out Sultan leaving Derek’s Legend with young Charlie. He usually takes it personally but also knows the incredible strike rate Martha has leading out our hounds. He reminded us that Sultan did 29.09 in a blistering effort just a few weeks back in his care, but we stood our ground ! We hadn’t got on the scoreboard but we’ve never to date left Hove without a winner, on the odd occasion we head down south. Martha loaded Sultan and the result was never in doubt 🤣
Back to Sultan himself, as far as looks are concerned he’s the most beautiful dog, and gorgeous soul, that we’ve ever owned. The author already has a place on the sofa for him back in Dublin but he’s got a lot of competitions in him yet. Just to remind everyone he beat Derby Finalist Hackney Corner twice as well as Texas Jack in the Enniscorthy unraced and Towcester track record holder and Derby favourite Epic Ace coming from behind at Galway.
Well done Sultan thank you Lucky Charm ☘️ and we love you really, young Charlie !
Honourable mention goes to Zenith Ottoman who was a 25/1 shot in her first 750m race last night. There were two odds on shots in the race (how does that work ?) but at that price an each way speculation was well worth while. She is after all an open race winner over 4&6 bends elsewhere and the sister of the mighty Zenith Impact. Well, she did us very proud running an amazing 8 bender and only being touched off on the line by a nostril. Amazing effort by Ottoman and maybe these extended trips are going to be her game. Thank you Supremo David Mullins your lateral thinking and placement never ceases to amaze us.
A bit of a quieter weekend than usual as we have a few resting and some trialling for upcoming competitions.
Anyway the Epsom Derby and more importantly Greyhound Derby will keep us all busy.
Good luck to all combatants but especially to our dear friend Mo Zaman, head of the Hackney Boys Syndicate with Hackney Corner. After his trial around Kilkenny it was obvious this hound could go far and he seems to be peaking at the right time but he will still have to go some to beat the mighty Dowling machine (how does he do it ? Fair play to him and the team at Ballymacelligott)
We were close to buying Ballymac Duffle before the unraced final @KingdomDogTrack having listened to the high praise bestowed on him by the Commentator GOAT @IanFortune and his trusty cohort the exiled one @Lyonser
It wasn’t meant to be but we will continue to roll the dice over the coming weeks months and years hoping to bump into a headliner, but it’s easier said than done. One thing is certain and that is luck 🍀 plays the biggest part in the sport we love. Lucky we’ve got Martha in our corner !
Over and out 💥
@MullinsRhianne@kellygutts@rhymeswitsnoopy@j4cklin@Hobbsy67@JimCreminRP@Theleaguemag@ClassicRaceDave@GreyhoundNewsUK@RPGreyhounds
@CSDogTalk It probably surpasses Stud, Lake, Mati, Kamala etc and there are way more of them. Malinas sprint trial around Shelbourne just the icing on the cake.
Zenith Racing UK 🇬🇧 runners Thursday 4th June
Note : Tanju Non runner off colour.
We head to @HoveGreyhounds this evening for three runners go for the superstar triumvirate @reesgreyhound
Starting with Zenith Duke who was accosted at the 4th bend last weekend and very unlucky to be beaten. It’s only a matter of time before he gets his first open race win. Not sure if tonight is the night as he’s up against an aeroplane in Trap 3 (29.03 in a trial) but we stand behind our lad who has a race time of 29.15. Let’s not speak too early but this Duke could turn into the top Zenith Racing hound in the next few weeks and months. Zenith Rocket also up against an antagonist in trap 6 who cost us his only short head defeat when leading 4 weeks ago. Let’s set the record straight tonight. Sultan going in the last. We love Sultan but he’s been a bit below his usual high standards the last two weeks. Time to get back on track this evening. We’d be happy with one winner and all have chances anything more than that is a bonus. Don’t rule out the treble though !
Maestro Jimmy Fenwick just informed us about Tanju who beat these exact adversaries last Thursday. We were looking forward to a repeat but a tummy bug has laid him low.
Beauty downgraded to an A3 and Mikmacker hopefully should get back on track after a couple of sub par performances for him.
5 runners all with chances. Exciting evening coming up that’s for sure.
@j4cklin@therealiceonfi1@HannahFenwick13@fenwick_melanie@jaygc18@Hobbsy67@JimCreminRP@GreyhoundNewsUK@RPGreyhounds
Linda Mullins appreciation part 3
Leg 2 Scotland Leg 3 Ireland plus Romford hurdles challenge and how to (or not to) buy hounds !
No videos of the Scottish and Irish Nationals as they are still on VHS tape but some photos.
First Powderhall….Well to be totally honest in an era before Google Maps we tried to plot out our routing and timing for the mammoth journey to Scotland (7 1/2 hours estimated !)
That timescale meant the 44 souls who made it to Hall Green was whittled down to one car with Vince, The Greaser, Ankles and Stan the only willing participants. We set off early but as we navigated the North London traffic to get to the M1 there were already mumblings of what the hell are we doing. 7 1/2 hours for 29 seconds of action. 28 1/2 seconds actually would win it ! By Watford gap the decision was made to bail which I regret to this day. No video no other way of watching bar waiting for a call from Linda or the teletext results (anyone remember those !)
Linda beat the teletext to tell us the good news and asked where the crew were. Made up some nonsense about why we didn’t make it but she chuckled (she did a lot of that !) and said that “Gizmo was brilliant tonight and I know you won’t miss Dublin for the unprecedented treble”. Too right, any excuse to go to the Emerald Isle in search of a new hound and a couple of pints of Guinness !
Gizmo started warm favourite for the @shelbournepark final which he won well enough winning in a track record 29.67. A more subtle podium of 8 compared to the Hall Green 44. Gizmo and Linda had done the treble broken track records which was never matched in the hurdles racing era .
In the middle of this record attempt, Linda came up with a brilliant idea that summer, to basically settle once and for all the argument of who had the best hurdlers in the Mullins kennel. The effervescent Terry De Mol owned Pantile a very good hurdler around Romford and Brosna River. Most race nights were spent bantering about who the best hurdler was and we both drove Linda mad till one day she said how about a 4 dog match race to shut the pair of you up ! Sounded great so all we had to do was sponsor the Battle of the Jumpers and @romfordracing were kind enough to stage the event. We had Skyline Prince and Gizmo Pasha in our corner both had won plenty around Romford but over the shorter 400m Pantile to his credit just held on, which understandably caused Terry to sprint to the podium to collect his cup. Linda was delighted to end the discussion, well that’s what she thought, as the pair of us plotted an around Britain version of the 4 dog race over 4 races. Needless to say other tracks were a bit perplexed as to what our end game was. There was no end game just a couple of proud owners having some friendly banter. Terry ended up winning the battle and the war as that was the only race, but Linda always said the best hurdler was Gizmo Pasha that she ever trained.
The last story about Linda is how she took a hound bought by total accident and turned it into a champion. A few of us went over to Dublin and decided to go hunting for some hounds. This is the time before mobile phones, the internet, grirleland, and Google maps. Buying dogs from Ireland was total luck. Some decent dogs were trialling in Cappamore. We set out from Dublin with a car and a limo which was all we could find at such short notice. Our friend Stan Lock took some in his car the rest of us took the limo. We had limited destination instructions and no telephone. Bottom line the Limo never made it, allowing Stan to purchase a hound.
When the beast finally arrived in London Linda tried him over the 400m at which he wasn’t spectacular! She rang Stan and said what made you buy this dog. Stan said it beat the other in the trial ! Linda said the only hope was sprinting. That 2000 punt dog was turned by Linda into a champion sprinter aptly named Where’s the Limo ! RIP the wonderful Linda ❤️
@MullinsRhianne@JimCreminRP@kellygutts@Hobbsy67
Linda Mullins appreciation Part 2
Hurdlers Linda, yeah let’s try it why not ?
English Grand National 1990 Gizmo Pasha 1st leg of treble.
We’d already started our hurdling adventure with our first ever hound Skyline Prince who took the William Hill Springbok for Dave Kinchett at Wimbledon in 1988 before we transferred him to Linda later that year. Linda took Prince, who went on to win the Scottish Grand National in 1989 breaking the track record for the 465m race in 28.63 that never was beaten. He also won numerous open races and competitions for us.
However, pretty quickly, Linda informed us that one of our other dogs Gizmo Pasha may be an even better hurdler after trying him out. Who were we to argue and Linda transformed this wide running hound who was just below top class into one of the greatest hurdlers there’s ever been and one who remarkably won all 3 Grand Nationals in 1990 being English then Scottish and finally towards the end of the season the Irish @shelbournepark a record that was never equalled.
Leg 1 involved numerous trips to Hall Green in Birmingham but when Pasha went off favourite for the final, it seemed like half th @RomfordDogs regulars wanted to go up for a fun filled night. On the day of the race, we started with a Mayfair lunch with the GOAT 🐐 Tony Morris, bookmaker extraordinaire, which was a regular event in our calendar. We had to go somewhere that would take Tony’s beloved pooches Coco and Chanel who never left his or his wife Maria’s side. I don’t know who persuaded whom during that lunch that Gizmo was a good thing but we were buzzing after getting some courage from the great man that the trip to the midlands and back would not be a wasted one.
44 of us set off and naturally the drinks were flowing and the mood somewhat boisterous! I had rang Linda the day before and asked her if she could arrange some owners passes, to which she said no problem, until I informed her that there were 44 of us coming. She chuckled and said she’d arranged for 2 as that was what was on his card and the rest of the “mob” should pay their way in. Quite right Linda I will tell them all ! We got to Hall Green and there was very little interest in the rest of the card as the party continued and by the time race 8 had come along everyone was ready to carry Gizmo over the line with an incessant chant. Jumping brilliantly throughout Gizmo crossed the line in front. We’d won 💥🏆
The biggest head scratcher was who would go up to collect the trophy with Linda and a youthful David. At that stage there were no rules and the whole party ended up in the inner circle for the presentation plus a few others we may have picked up on the way ! David led a panting Gizmo through the masses and by the time he reached the podium the number 6 jacket had mysteriously disappeared ! It sits proudly on my wall to this day behind my desk signed of course by Linda and David. The picture below of the presentation wasn’t wide enough to capture the revellers ! On the podium Linda said if we can keep him going for the whole season and are selective, we can win an unprecedented treble. She called it that night and we just went along for the journey !
After thanking the sponsors and the track for their hospitality we bounced onto the bus for what seemed like a much shorter journey back (it always is when you win right ?)
Part 1 done. Part 2 beckoned. Where the bloody hell is Powderhall anyway 👀
@MullinsRhianne@kellygutts@Hobbsy67@JimCreminRP@jkgreyhounds@GreyhoundNewsUK @RPGreyhound @GreyhoundBoard
@plgbm The Aidan O'Brien (Trainer)/Coolmore (Owners) equivalent rolled into one. How does he do it and not even based at home for all this time ? Some man for one man !
Can’t keep that Supremo down 💪🏼💥
David Mullins and team have a double that should have been a treble on Saturday night for Zenith Racing.
What a top pro this Mullins fella is. In the middle of dealing with well wishers and funeral arrangements for his dearly beloved mother Linda, the white overcoat comes out and away he goes to @centralparkdogs to still attempt to smile for the camera on Zenith Impact’s record breaking 13th win (that’s 4 in as many weeks). Many would have taken a few days off to deal with things, not our consummate pro though. It’s the way Linda brought him and his brothers up, so nothing surprises us. Legend has turned into a really decent hound and it’s time to test her against the best bitches out there.
Back @RomfordDogs Sunrise comes from last to first over 400m which is something that you don’t see that often round the Essex track ! Her sister Zaza just fails to make it a memorable treble for Supremo but she’s knocking on the door now (still coming out of season too)
David informs us that Jimbombom is having a much deserved break after recent flat out running, Legend (3 steps) and Impact heading for Sheffield, Scorpion to Central Park and the rest of the team will be home based at Romford. Well done Supremo and his incredible team👏🏼👏🏼The show must go on 💪🏼
Ps Linda Part 2 coming today
@MullinsRhianne@kellygutts@Hobbsy67@JimCreminRP@GreyhoundNewsUK@RPGreyhounds
@Carpente7Paul Who didn’t have that colour suit worn by the backing singers 🫣
The author had 3 shades of whatever that colour is. Can’t believe we thought the colour was “happening” 👀
@TowcesterOffice@joe_sear_1@StarSports_Bet So these are the famous Hackney Boys !
Apparently named after players who would play and train at Hackney Marshes and then nip to Hackney stadium to watch the dogs after training on a Saturday morning. Great story behind the name.
@QuackersTich@RacingPost Yes exactly should have broken away from Secreto and Christy Roche a fraction earlier that may have made them settle for second before Christy realised Pat was running on fumes.