Doyle, Nolan end on high note
Locals prominent as trainers and jockeys share wins
THE FINAL meeting of the season took place at a bitterly cold Bettyville on bank holiday Monday, and it was quite a successful end to the year for local connections, with trainers Liz Doyle and Paul Nolan and jockeys J.J. Slevin and Barry O’Neill sharing three wins.
It was a good day’s racing but a bad day for the bookies, with five favourites and two second favourites obliging in the seven all-sponsored races, before a good crowd.
It was a pity that the Listed €40,000 feature race only attracted four runners, and it was also a pity that the bar and Tote facility at the back of the main stand was not open to provide some shelter on such a cold day.
Michael Murphy, Chairman and Managing Director, said he was pretty happy with the year just ended. Attendances were up a little, sponsorship was strong, and the level of entries and quality of the racing was very good.
He thanked the people of Wexford for their support and urged them to continue with it next year, and to consider joining the Supporters’ Club which is offering some attractive packages.
The Supporters’ Club A.G.M. is on Wednesday, November 27, at 8 p.m., and all are welcome. It will include a fun horse racing table quiz, with tea and coffee and a bar available.
The Monday was bookended by two Wexford winners. The opening County Wexford Vintners maiden hurdle was won very snugly by Liz Doyle’s Cayd Boy (11/10f) in the J.P. McManus colours, worn by his retained Irish rider, Mark Walsh.
Three fell at the first but Walsh avoided the trouble and always looked comfortable. ‘I’ve always loved him and hopefully he can go on,’ was Doyle’s comment. ‘I don’t know how good he is but we’ll find out in the next six months.’
At the end of the card, champion point-to-point rider, Barry O’Neill, had a comfortable spin round on Paul Nolan’s Fortune Street (9/4) in the Jim Whitty (of Whitford House) flat race, beating Lisa O’Neill on Gordon Elliott’s Axiomatic (7/2) by six and half lengths, with Jamie Codd another eleven lengths back on favourite, Battling Warrior (5/4).
O’Neill took it up six furlongs out and never looked like being beaten as he gave Nolan and owners, Manverton Limited, their second Wexford win in two days.
‘I’m hoping he’ll stay sound and kick on from here,’ was Nolan’s comment. It was O’Neill’s sixth track win of the season.
J.J. Slevin was on board his cousin, Joseph O’Brien’s, Anything Will Do in the Kehoe Farming novice hurdle and he justified 6/4 favouritism with a cosy success from Declan Queally’s Owenacursra Lass (4/1). ‘He’s a nice horse going forward and he’ll jump a fence in time,’ was Slevin’s verdict.
Star of the day was Robbie Power, a man with Wexford blood in his veins, being son of Fethardborn showjumping legend, Capt. Con Power.
He won the Michael Moore Cars Sales maiden hurdle for his regular boss, Jessie Harrington, on the well-backed Silver Sheen (7/2 in morning into 15/8f).
Power took the day’s feature and the biggest race of the year in Wexford, the €40,000 M.W. Hickey Memorial Chase, on Gordon Elliott’s Champagne Classic (6/4), by a comfortable 3.75 lengths, from Davy Russell on Paul Nolan’s Cheltenham close second, Discorama, which was backed into 5/4f near the off. The benefit of a recent run told for the winner.
There were two talking points after the race: why did such a valuable event only attract four runners, and why was Davy Russell not on board either of the two Elliott/Gigginstown runners, or on any of the others from that quarter all through the weekend?
Rumours of a rift abounded but there was little on the record. Russell did ride and win on some non-Gigginstown horses trained by Elliott later in the week.
Elliott also won the Poolcourt beginners’ chase by 19 lengths with Éclair De Beaufeu (7/4f) under Keith Donogue, and the IRIS Opportunity handicap hurdle went to Shumaker (9/10f) under Darragh O’Keeffe, with the eight-hour return journey from Antrim proving worthwhile for trainer, Paul Traynor. Paul Nolan’s Crazyheart (5/2) was three and a half lengths back in second.
That’s it, then, for 2019, and racing will not return to Bettyville until St. Patrick’s Day next March.
Other fixtures for next year to note in the diary are: Friday, March 3; Saturday, May 16; Friday, May 22; Wednesday, June 3; Wednesday, June 17; Friday, July 3; Friday, August 7; Saturday, September 5; Sunday and Monday, October 25 and 26 (Festival bank holiday).