Swahili Eile* is here! He is pictured to the left. He is a wonderful dog. I was impressed with him upon first glance. It will be a couple of weeks before he will be ready for service as all paperwork still needs to be completed on him. He has settled in nicely.

Cool Cat* arrived as well with Dodgem By Design pups inutero. She is a lovely bitch with a very playful attitude. She loves attention and is very willing to give it back. Congrats to Henry Howe on this outstanding brood purchase. She is pretty near to being the female version of Maryville Rumble* if you look her pedigree up.

Thanks to Dan Ryan for all of his hospitality while Martin Roper and I were up in Lincoln. I was impressed with the track and how well the dogs held the bend. Dan informed me that the stange looking drag I noticed was the only one in this country. It is a very unique drag and seems to have greatly reduced the injury rate. We were also able to meet up with Cory Owens and Angela from RaceFor Adoption. We had a nice time visiting with them. We were all treated to a tour of the new adoption facility at Lincoln by Dan Ryan. It is a fantastic facility and I think we were all duly impressed. Later on Friday evening we watched round 2 of the American Derby. It was impressive to watch these dogs run live. We had a great time with Sean Bourke who accompanied the dogs over as well as FINALLY meeting Pat Dalton's trainer, Davey O'Keefe! I had spent a lot of phone calls back and forth with Davey about Energy Force* it was great to finally put a face with the voice! We also got to meet Wonderland track record holder, Scoobie Blue and trainer, Steve Perkins.

All in all I think Martin and I were both impressed by the friendiness of all the people we met this weekend. Everyone was extremely helpful and accomodating. Big THANK YOU to Sean and Ann Bourke who helped get all these dogs safely here and especially to Ann for all her work freezing Swahili Eile prior to his exportation.

Sean has informed us that some of the top Irish Derby class dogs will be coming over for the Million. It sounds like the 2008 Million could be one for the record books!!!