[1] The winner Batties Rocket won £50,000 and was trained by Matt O'Donnell, owned and bred by Alicia Swaffield.
[2] At Shelbourne, 23 September [3] (over 550 yards): ½, 1¾, 1½, 1½, short-head (lengths) Trainer Nick Savva sent his 1994 greyhound of the year Westmead Chick and the recent Bar One International winner Westmead Merlin over to Ireland from the UK but in a significant misunderstanding he had failed to bring their stud cards (not needed in UK racing because of the NGRC identity book system).
[4] With the two Westmeads missing it was left to Michael Enright’s 1995 English Greyhound Derby runner-up Summerhill Joy to take the tag as the ante post favourite.
Matt O’Donnell and Ger McKenna were well represented as usual as was the exiled John 'Ginger' McGee Sr.[4] Summerhill Joy duly recorded the fastest qualifying time in 30.33 sec and O’Donnell’s River Lad followed that up by becoming the best in round one with 30.34 but Irish Oaks winner Cool Survivor and Velvet Rocket were both eliminated.
[4] Michael O'Donovan’s Dew Reward impressed throughout the competition and in the quarter-finals Matt O'Donnell trained four runners through to the semi-finals.