Fogarty’s great run
Good week for Adamstown’s Moore
LEADING LIGHTS last week were Mikey Fogarty who had a great run of four winners at four different venues and was also involved in a bit of controversy at Fairyhouse on Saturday, and Jonathan Moore who had three big winners in successive days for his boss, Rebecca Curtis.
On Tuesday, Fogarty continued his partnership with Killiney Court (2/1 fav.) which has moved from the retired Colm Murphy to Henry de Bromhead. He rode a cool race to see off just four rivals in the €10,000 novice chase by half a length over two and a half miles.
Mikey had delivered one of Colm Murphy’s last winners on Killiney Court at Ballinrobe towards the end of August. This was his first ride for de Bromhead and the Waterford handler was very pleased. ‘Mikey gave him a super ride and he jumped well,’ was his summation.
Later on the card, Jamie Codd had yet another bumper winner, romping home by 15 lengths on the Gordon Elliott-trained Monbeg Notorious (8/11f).
At Tramore on Thursday, Fogarty booted home a winner for former champion point-to-point rider and now Blackwater-based trainer, John Berry. Abbey Magic (8/1) disputed the lead over the last but then stayed on well to win by nearly two lengths.
Hurry Kitty (6/1) won a two mile five handicap hurdle for trainer Liz Doyle and the Ferns-based Demesne Syndicate, mostly made up of Murphy family members, with Donagh Meyler on board.
The syndicate has had great fun out of Hurry Kitty; this was her third win and she’s also placed seven times while earning nearly €34,000. As Liz Doyle pointed out: ‘She only cost 400 quid, and nearly every day she is in the money’.
Over jumps at Fairyhouse on Saturday, there were three winners for Wexford connections, though Mikey Fogarty had mixed fortunes.
In the mares’ beginners’ chase he had a comfortable win on Colin Bowe’s Havana Dancer (7/1) but an hour later he was one of two left at the post in a controversial start to the handicap hurdle. Both were facing the wrong way when they were let go but the stewards found no fault with the start - officials are never wrong in racing!
The race was actually won by Seán Flanagan with a smooth ride on Noel Meade’s top weight, Jack Slade (9/2 jf), prevailing by half a length. Then Jamie Codd maintained his remarkable strike rate in bumpers when winning snugly on James Leavy’s Allez Sea (4/1).
Fogarty had his fourth win of the week in the last at Limerick on Sunday, a €14,500 beginners’ chase, on the unfancied Undressed (drifted from 8/1 to 14/1) for local trainer Michael Hourigan.
Jim Bolger had a nice two-yearold winner on debut at the Curragh on Sunday also, Kevin Manning getting Holistic Approach home by half a length. Bolger described him as ‘a nice prospect’.
An interesting aspect of the Cesarewitch at Newmarket on Saturday - a massive field of 35 featured four of the Wexford professionals riding in England but there was no joy for Jimmy Fortune (eighth), Jimmy Quinn (eleventh), Pat Dobbs (14th) and Pat McDon- ald (16th) - it’s not often they all appear in the same race.
In a quiet start to the week in Britain, Pat Dobbs (Enniscorthy) scored on Monday on Skeaping (2/1) at Windsor for his boss, Richard Hannon. Daryl Jacob (Davidstown) won a three-mile handicap chase aboard Pawn Star (5/2f) for Emma Lavelle at Exeter on Thursday.
There was a major lift on Friday with two ‘Wexford’ doubles. At York, Pat McDonald (Taghmon) drove out Comedy School for Mark Johnston in the £15,000 nursery, and Jimmy Fortune (Ferns) scored on hotshot Raheen House in the auction maiden for Brian Meehan.
Over the jumps at Newton Abbott, Daryl Jacob won on Nick Williams’ After Eight Sivola (8/1) and Jonathan Moore (Adamstown) won on the Romford Pele (7/1) for Rebecca Curtis in the £28,000 featured handicap hurdle.
On Saturday, over the jumps at Chepstow, Moore made practically all the running in the £35,000 twomile handicap chase on 12/1 shot Potters Bar. He made it three in three days for Curtis in the £15,000 novice chase at Chepstow on Sunday on Definite Outcome (5/1), beating his Noel Fehily-ridden stablemate by a neck with a terrific finish.
Aidan O’Brien continued his relentless assault on the top prizes in horse racing after his unique 1-23 in the Prix de l’Arc de Tiomphe.
One of the bets of the week was the ‘flowery’ forecast of his two in the Group 1 Dubai Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket on Friday, with the heavily-punted Rhododendron (5/2 from 4/1) under Ryan Moore romping clear of Hydrangea (4/1), with the straight forecast paying over £12.50 to 1.
Aidan also scored a one-two on Saturday in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket with odds-on favourite Churchill beating Lancaster Bomber (66/1); between them they earned nearly £300,000 stg. This race is one of the top pointers to next year’s classics and Churchill was put in as low as 6/4 for the 2000 Guineas.
This was Aidan’s 20th Group 1 win of the year and he is in with a realistic chance of beating Bart Frankel’s world record total of 25 (mostly won in the United States); he did come close once before when clocking up 24 Group 1s in the same season.