FAST losing its flat cap and Woodbines image is greyhound racing - thanks largely to the very swish new corporate rooms installed at Shelbourne Park which enable punters to enjoy the racing without getting so much as a sniff of a dog.
Latest fan seems to be the President, Mrs Robinson, who went last Saturday to present a trophy for one of the races and ended up staying for the entire meeting. She even placed a modest wager and won - though she did have the advantage of having as her tipster Paschal Taggart, chairman of Bord na gCon. Earlier in the day the President had presented Jack Charlton with his honorary citizenship, and when she told him that she was going to the dogs, the Geordie confided that he would by far prefer that option to his actual date - a posh dinner at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In suites on either side of the President's suite at the track were Niall Deasy from Coopers and Lybrand, who was entertaining some clients and John Daly of ICL who was doing the same - and not a flat cap in sight.