Gerard 'Ger' McKenna was an Irish

greyhound trainer A greyhound trainer is a person who trains greyhounds for racing. This involves exercising, feeding, and grooming them in addition to keeping the greyhound in race condition to enable the greyhound to race to the best of its ability. History Befo ...

regarded as the greatest Irish trainer of all time. He won the

Irish Greyhound Derby The Irish Greyhound Derby held at Shelbourne Park, is the premier greyhound racing competition in Ireland. First held at Harold's Cross in 1928, the event was unofficial until 1932 and called the National Derby. The first winner in 1928 was T ...

three times and the

English Greyhound Derby The English Greyhound Derby is the most prestigious race on the British Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing calendar, with a history stretching back to 1927. It was first held at White City Stadium, but moved to Wimbledon ...

twice. From 1956 until 1996 he won 45 major competitions.

Early life

He was born in

Borrisokane Borrisokane () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is situated at the junction of the N52 and N65 national secondary roads. At the 2016 census, it had a population of 942. The Ballyfinboy River flows through the town on its way to Lough ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

, his father was Malachy McKenna (a cattle trader), and mother was Agnes McKenna (née Gavin), and he was the younger cousin of

Gay McKenna Gay McKenna was an Irish greyhound trainer who won the Irish Greyhound Derby five times. He was considered the leading trainer in Ireland from 1960 until 1972. Early life McKenna was born in Birr, County Offaly. He operated his kennels at C ...

. His father introduced him to greyhound racing and was a successful trainer in his own right winning the

1956 Irish Greyhound Derby The 1956 Irish Greyhound Derby took place during July and August with the final being held at Shelbourne Park in Dublin on 11 August 1956. The winner Keep Moving won £500 and was trained by Malachy McKenna and owned by Mrs McBride. Final resu ...

with Keep Moving.

Career

His first major success came in 1956 with his favourite greyhound Prince of Bermuda who won the

Irish St Leger The Irish St Leger is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 1 mile and 6 furlongs (2,816 metres), and it i ...

. McKenna would experience major success at regular intervals over the following years. Major race wins became second nature and records tumbled. In 1969 Ger won the

for the first time with Own Pride and four years later in 1973 he claimed a second Irish Derby title and arguably became the most prominent trainer in Irish racing at the time. It was around this time that he started sending strong teams to compete in the

and Ballymaclune provided his first finalist in that event in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and one year later in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

he trained the runner up. Irish Derby finals became regular occurrences and then in 1981 Parkdown Jet won the 1981 English Greyhound Derby for McKenna, this was only the second time anybody had trained both and Irish and English winner (The first was Paddy Keane). After a second English Derby success in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

with Lartigue Note, he became the first person to achieve more than one Irish and English Derby win. Included in his 45 major competition wins are twelve Irish St Legers and eight Irish Laurels. McKenna retired in 1999 transferring the racing operation to one of his sons Owen McKenna who won the Irish Derby himself in 2004.

Death

McKenna died in May 2014 leaving a wife Josie and three sons Ger, John and Owen. His legacy is that he is the regarded as the best Irish trainer of all time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKenna, Ger Sportspeople from County Tipperary 1930 births 2014 deaths Irish greyhound racing trainers