By Michael Andrews
Eighteen years ago, Mark and William Flanagan from Dublin, Ireland took their stable star Sable Matters to compete in the 1997 Inter Dominion.
Unfortunately, he never lined up at Globe Derby Park that year due to injury, but the team have an excellent chance of making amends with Meadowbranch DJ, who is only two points off the top position in the Anglo-Irish Inter Dominion series.
The Great British and Irish series now only has one round remaining, with Brywinsmagicpotion gaining the upper hand with a second-placed finish at York on Saturday.
Meadowbranch DJ could only manage third behind the runaway winner Astounding, in the third track record in as many races.
Unfortunately the Scottish-trained star missed the second round and cannot win the series so it remains a two-horse shoot out.
Brywinsmagicpotion now leads with twenty points, with Meadowbranch DJ only two behind with eighteen.
The winner with the most points at the end of the four stages will travel to Australia in the summer for the $1.8 million TABtouch Inter Dominion where the finale will be run at Gloucester Park in Perth.
The unlucky story of Sable Matters for Meadowbranch Stables is hard to swallow.
The pacer was stabled with Brian Hancock, who had trained Sable Matter’s three-quarter brother Sabilize USA, in preparation for the series.
Three weeks before the Inter Dominion began, Sable Matters worked out with none other than Our Sir Vancelot who that year started his hat trick of wins in the richest and most prestigious harness racing contest in the southern hemisphere.
Shockingly, in that workout it was Sable Matters who came out on top, beating the soon to be three-times champion. Soon after the unfortunate pacer, who had travelled halfway around the world, broke a side bone and couldn’t compete.
For Mark and William Flanagan, who never believed they would be gifted with such an opportunity again, it is a chance to return to Australia to finish what they started back in 1997.
Meadowbranch DJ won the first stage of the series in a new track record at York in June but had to bow down to Brywinsmagicpotion in a scintillating finish at Portmarnock in the second round and was behind him last weekend too.
Their stranglehold of the series should set up for a superb clash on Sunday in Ireland.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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