THROUGH their Hennessy Sale, which takes place after racing at Newbury on Friday, November 27th, Doncaster Bloodstock Sales was the only named race sponsor at the Shillelagh & District meeting last Sunday.

Tomorrow, neither of the main sales houses feature among the sponsors at the Galway Blazers’ fixture at Dartfield House, Loughrea but the winners of one is being supported by Jim Derwin, the most prolific buyer of sport horses in Ireland.

The Athlone man had little hesitation in agreeing to helping out tomorrow. “I buy a lot of horses in that part of the country so when I was asked to sponsor a race, I was only too happy to do so,” he stated.

Between sales at Goresbridge and Cavan, the hunter show and go at Scarteen and Ballinasloe Fair, Derwin reckons he bought well over 80 horses in the last two weeks or so.

Jim rarely buys thoroughbreds these days but now has two in his ownership.

CLEARY WINNER

The first is Greanta who Tom Cleary was recommended to buy by Jim Bolger when he went looking for a promising horse to enter in the mile and a half handicap run at Roscommon in memory of his late son Sean.

The plan worked out to perfection on August 17th when the bay, ridden by Tom’s son Rory, won in the colours of James Derwin, the trainer’s nephew.

Shay Barry is training a point-to-pointer for Derwin and as soon as a name comes through for the five-year-old Beneficial gelding, who is out of a Roselier mare, he will be ready to run. “I bought him in Limerick from Michael Enright,” relates Derwin. “I buy a lot of half-breds from Michael and he told me about this horse he had in for breaking. I’ll know just how good he is once I see him run.

“When Daddy (Francis) was alive and things weren’t as busy with the half-breds, we’d like nothing more than to have pointers in the yard, racing on Sundays. Now I just wouldn’t have the time to train them here myself and this is the first one I’ve had anything to do with in a long time.”