Great craic at the Ballyshannon pig races
The pig races ran off last Saturday at the Bridgend in Ballyshannon and were a great success. A great crowd turned out to see eight races over the course of the evening. The winners were as follows.
Race one: Ballyshannon Agricultural Show Stakes: Piggy owned by Trevor O'Mahoney
Race two: The Owen Roe Oaks: Pinkie owned by Michelle Parton
Race three: Ballybookies Bumper: The Master owned by Trisha McGrath
Race four: The Melly's Handicap: Tully Rover owned by Terence McShea
Race five: McGinley's Maiden: The Blue Rooster owned by Sean O'Mahoney
Race six: The Bridgend Bowl: Ham-string trouble owned by Pauric Loughlin, Diarmuid McInerney and Niall Murray
The seventh race was the Ballyshannon Credit Union auction race which attracted lively bidding, greatly encouraged by the wiles of Billy Grimes, compere extraordinaire on the night. Although it's worth noting Sean Perry also got in on the act for a few races. The pigs were themed on Donegal's Ulster final winners. John Patton bought Rashers McFadden; Thomas McGann bought Scratchings McGee; Mags Grimes bought Cured Cassidy; Sean O'Mahoney bought Smokey Lacey; Conor Gilmartin bought Boyle-d Bacon; while John Sheerin snapped up the last pig of the night, Sausages Murphy.
When the race was finally run it was a great result for the home support as Conor Gilmartin's Boyle-d Bacon romped home. Mags Grimes pig might have lost the auction race, but she scooped the two Hogan stand tickets in the raffle. And speaking of which, the final race of the night was a two pig race: Donegal v Dublin. And with Sean Perry's ample encouragement all the way up the track it was Donegal who took the honours. Surely a great omen for Sunday!
A lot people need to be thanked for helping make the races happen. Thanks to Billy Grimes who did such a marvelous job of holding the show together. Thanks to John and Darren McGee who provided the lorry, especially Darren who went to so much effort to set up the camera platform. Thanks to the residents and businesses of the port who gave us access to the streets, we couldn't have done it without them. Thanks to the race sponsors and all the great local companies who took adverts in the race programme. Thanks also to Ballybookies for supplying the betting slips. Thanks to Sean Cassidy for taking care of the all the sound and piping the races into the pubs and Cathal Maguire who did the camera work. Thanks to Thomas McGeary who kindly gave us access to the building used as the Pig Race HQ. Thanks to Watson Hire of Donegal town for providing the barriers and Owen Roe O'Neill for the use of his car park for storing the barriers. Last, but definitely not least, thanks to everybody who helped out on the day. The programme sellers, the raffle sellers, the bet sellers, the runners and the bookies and everyone else who helped make the races happen. Thanks also to everyone who attended and made the night such a success. Over €3,500 was raised for Aodh Ruadh Bord na nÓg.
Last modified: Monday, 1 June 2020 at 1:14pm