Centenary Derby at Shelbourne

Shelbourne Park has two Derby finals in its 2027 diary, and they are not the same race. The Irish Greyhound Derby stays in its late-summer slot. A one-off Centenary Derby, added to mark 100 years of greyhound racing in Ireland, is due to finish at the Dublin track on Thursday 30 December.

Greyhound Racing Ireland announced the calendar on 10 November after its board ratified the schedule. The published fixture sheet gives each Derby a separate line, a different distance and its own set of dates. December is an addition, not a move for the Irish Derby.

The two Derby dates at Shelbourne Park

Competition	Distance	Scheduled start	Scheduled final
Irish Greyhound Derby	550 yards	Saturday 7 August 2027	Saturday 11 September 2027
Centenary Derby	525 yards	Saturday 4 December 2027	Thursday 30 December 2027

The September final shares its date with the Irish Greyhound Derby Plate, which is also listed over 550 yards at Shelbourne. Come December, there are two 525-yard finals on the same night: the Centenary Derby and the Christmas Oaks. If you are saving a fixture or looking for a replay later, use the full competition name. The venue and trip alone will not always tell you which race you have found.

The table gives the start and final dates, as the official sheet does. It is not a list of every round. The Centenary Derby opens on a Saturday, but its final is on a Thursday. That is an easy detail to miss if Saturday is the night you normally associate with a Shelbourne Derby final.

There are other autumn dates to note between the two. The Irish Greyhound Laurels at Cork is scheduled to finish on 16 October and the Irish St Leger at Limerick on 20 November. If you are following the Classics rather than just planning a visit to Shelbourne, those two finals sit between the regular Derby and the start of the centenary competition.

Four finals on 30 December

The Christmas Oaks is one of three finals listed alongside the Centenary Derby. The other two are the Gold Collar over 550 yards and the Shelbourne Marathon over 850. That gives the closing date three different distances, even though two of the events are over the same trip.

The lead-in is staggered. The Centenary Derby is down to start on 4 December, the Gold Collar on 10 December, and the Oaks and Marathon on 11 December. All four rows end on the 30th. That makes the final date the useful one to save if you want to see the four deciders together, rather than treating any one of those opening dates as the start of all four competitions.

SIS Racing's specialist report also identifies the three supporting finals. It says details of its 2027 Irish coverage will follow. The fixture sheet does not provide race times, a running order or entries for the December card. If you plan to travel or watch from home, check the latest venue and broadcast information closer to the meeting. GRI marks the dates as subject to change.

What the centenary marks

This is a centenary of the sport in Ireland, not the hundredth anniversary of the Irish Derby itself. GRI's history of the Derby places the first meeting in April 1927 at Celtic Park in Belfast. Shelbourne Park followed on 14 May. The first Irish Derby took place the following year at Harold's Cross.

That is also a different milestone from the one marked in Britain in 2026, a century after the Belle Vue meeting in Manchester. Our history of British greyhound racing follows that story from 1926. For a look at why a competition's rounds and its final are separate dates, see our beginner's guide to greyhound racing.

For the 2027 Irish calendar, the distinction is simpler: 11 September is the date to pencil in for the regular Irish Derby. Save 30 December separately for the centenary race and its three supporting finals.