West Palm Beach, Florida: Craigie O Nelly and O Reilly Are Newest Greyhound Stars

As if Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Florida doesn't have enough star greyhounds on the grounds, now they have two more. The brother and sister act of Craigie O Reilly and Craigie O Nelly has Irish eyes smilin', as the pair out of Trojan Cruze and Craigie M Slip have flown up the Palm Beach grading ladder straight to grade A. It took Reilly, the male, nine starts to pull that off, while Nelly needed just seven to advance from Maiden to the top Palm Beach level, where the duo will now battle the likes of Switzler Jammin and Bohemian Dione on a regular basis.

Of the two greyhounds, Nelly has been the more impressive. In the middle of June she schooled very well, winning a pair of heats by a combined twelve and a half lengths. Her Maiden debut resulted in an easy win in a scorching 29.54 clocking for the 545 yard Palm Beach Course and she followed that up with a 29.50 for a six length decision in Grade J. Nelly experienced the learning curve next time out, getting in trouble from the six box in D but still managing to get up for third place. In her next try, breaking out of the very same six hole, Craigie O Nelly won by six and a half and then by five and a half in C five days later. In that event, Nelly posted her quickest time to date, a blazing 29.41. After clearing the turn in fourth in her initial Grade B outing, Nelly closed up to second by a mere half a length before bursting into the Grade A scene her next start with a convincing four and a half length triumph.

O Reilly did not look as fast as his sister, at least when the pair were schooling into Palm Beach Kennel Club. As a matter of fact, O Reilly barely made it around the track on June 3rd in his first exposure to the Florida oval, receiving the comment of "Raced green" after his poor effort. While that might seem a good comment for a greyhound with Irish blood, it really wasn't, and O Reilly and his handlers went back to the drawing board to get him into the flow of things. He looked much better a couple of weeks later when he went to the front and ran a hard trying third. His Maiden race went well, even though he got caught in the last few strides by I Get Around. However, he was "pinched back" his next start and finished dead last.

Suddenly the light went on for Craigie O Reilly, and he rocketed to the front in four consecutive tilts, winning the quartet handily to advance to Grade B. Once there, he ran last and then third before scoring the two length victory that sent him into A where he will now mix it up with the best Palm Beach Kennel Club has to offer. One of those is Switzler Jammin, who leapt back into the winner's circle with a six and a half length rout of his peers after having his seven race winning skein snapped the time before. Jammin is as good as it gets at Palm Beach, coming off a one year span in which he was the track champion, procuring a total of forty wins for the 2006-2007 meet.

Bohemian Calyso, the 2007 Bud Light Iron Dog Triathlon champion, made it four 660 yard 3/8ths of a mile races in a row in the win column on Sunday, July 22nd. Calyso caught Starz Kwik at the wire for the second time in three days, as that promising youngster transitions to the longer routes after breaking in last winter at Palm Beach in fine fashion, before slightly staling off after early success. Kwik came back in early June to win three in a row, only to come off the active list once more with a minor hurt. After a break of three weeks, he has come back in the routes, and it won't be long before he wins his share. Getting back to Calyso, he was joined in victory lane on that Sunday matinee card by two of his brothers, as Bohemian Telesto won the Grade B tenth, while Bohemian Dione took the Grade A twelfth going away.