Dunne’s first double
St. Patrick’s Day action in Wexford
WHILE THE eyes of most of the racing world were focused on Cheltenham on St. Patrick’s Day, the less high-profile local meeting at Bettyville in Wexford provided a career highlight for Kiltealy jockey, Harley Dunne, who recorded his first double on the track, one of them for Ballindaggin trainer Seán Thomas Doyle.
Trainer Liz Doyle, who is enjoying a good run, produced a third local winner, her 15th of the season.
Considering all the sporting counter-attractions and the weather turning rather cold and windy, there was a decent turn-out at Bettyville, with the Tote aggregate for the day being over €83,000.
The jackpot pool of over €5,000 was not won and was carried over to Limerick on Saturday. This was not surprising as it was a tough day for the hardy punters, with no favourite obliging and winners returned at 20/1, 16/1, 14/1, 8/1 and 7/1.
Harley Dunne is well known on the point-to-point scene with nearly 50 winners to his name, but these were his first track successes for nearly two years and a €1 double on the two of them would have returned a handsome €167.
He scored first on Crosshue Boy (7/1) for regular point-to-point partner, trainer Seán Thomas Doyle, and owner Niall Heffernan, in the €16,500 Micheál O Murchadha Memorial handicap hurdle, a race honouring one of the Bettyville track founders.
In a nicely-judged ride, Dunne joined favourite Camlann (15/8) two out and he led into the straight and kept on well to win by almost two lengths. This was compensation for Crosshue Boy’s narrow defeat on his previous outing over fences at Navan.
Dunne completed his double in the concluding €10,000 Wexford Pro-Am bumper on board Vanellope, and it was a 20/1 shocker to give Glenealy, Co. Wicklow, trainer Peter Croke his second winner of the season, leaving Gordon Elliott’s odds-on favourite in second
Liz Doyle opened the meeting on a winning note in the Pinnacle Tomcoole Waters & Kelly’s Bakery maiden hurdle, with Delface (16/1) getting up by a head under a good drive by Brian O’Connell. Second was Elliott’s Leomar (3/1) and third was Tree of Knowledge for Joseph O’Brien.
‘It’s taken a while for the penny to drop. He’s very babyish and backward but every race he’s taking a huge step forward,’ she said. This might be one to stick in the notebook.
The feature of the day was the €26,000 Arctic Tack Stud Veterans’ Chase for nine-year-olds and over, and it went to the powerful Willie Mullins yard, but not with the horse expected.
Winner was The Paparrazi Kid (8/1), ridden by Katie O’Farrell for the Byerley Racing Syndicate, the horse’s first win for over three years though he was second in the Galway Plate and fourth in the Kerry National in 2015.
He held off the late effort of Lisclogher Lad (13/2) by a neck, with the Mullins favourite, The Crafty Butcher (a drifting 7/2), back in third under Brian Hayes.
Arthur Moore has quite a good record around Bettyville and he struck again in the LAD, Murform, McCrea & Raptic maiden hurdle, with Crossed My Mind (5/2) being a handy winner for Jody McGarvey, over Paul Nolan’s well-backed Monotype (9/4), under Ger Fox for John Brennan.
Third was Finnegan’s Hollow (25/1), under Brian Hayes for owner, Henry Cleary, and trainer Gordon Doyle from Knockmullen, New Ross.
The Barry Ennis Memorial Hurdle was won by Jefferson Davis (14/1), ridden by Brian O’Connell for Eoin Doyle, Mooncoin, giving the jockey a 254/1 double with his earlier success on Delface.
The €16,500 Eoin O’Gorman Solicitors novice chase went to the prolific Capture The Drama (4/1), under Andrew Ring for owner/trainer Aengus King from Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare. This was the horse’s sixth win of the year, having also collected at Wexford last November, all of them under Ring.
They race again at Wexford on Friday evening April 7, and here’s hoping for nicer weather and a few more fancied winners.