Three for Slevin in busy festive week
Stephen’s Day success at Down Royal
IN A week dominated by the Leopardstown and Limerick racing festivals, Down Royal was not the most glamorous location on St. Stephen’s Day, but it was the most successful for Wexford connections.
J.J. Slevin from Kiltrea, Enniscorthy, who turned professional earlier in the year, scored a double in the first two races, and Jamie Codd picked up yet another bumper winner.
Slevin went on to make it three for the week at Leopardstown on Thursday, and it was a good week also for Mikey Fogarty with two winners in Limerick, and for Daryl Jacob on both sides of the Irish sea.
Slevin opened at Down Royal in the €14,000 Beginners’ Chase with a smooth win on board Liz Doyle’s well-backed Last Goodbye (10/1 in the morning into 7/2 jf), and followed up in the next on Moonlone Lane (8/1) for Dubliner Paul Stafford.
He went very close to making it a treble in the maiden hurdle when pipped by a neck on Turbojet, behind Henry De Bromhead’s Gigginstown runner, Calino D’airy.
Jamie Codd rode another bumper winner for Gordon Elliott and Michael O’Leary when he kept on strongly on Broken Soul to score by nearly five lengths.
At Leopardstown on Monday, Seán Flanagan scored on Joey Sasa (3/1) for his boss, Noel Meade, in the maiden hurdle, winning snugly.
Mikey Fogarty was unlucky in the €26,500 Racing Post App chase when he seemed to have the race at his mercy before crashing out at the last on Powersbomb (9/1), leaving Jim Culloty’s Lake Takapuna to take the spoils.
At Limerick on Tuesday, the best result was a second for Fogarty and trainer Colin Bowe’s Tranquil Magic (20/1) in the two-mile handicap hurdle. Fogarty got third in the graded €50,000 Tim Duggan Memorial handicap chase on Barry Murphy’s Pairofbrowneyes (5/1 jf), winner of the race a year earlier.
Barry O’Neill, leading point-topoint rider this season, scored with a good ride in the bumper at Limerick on Wednesday on Ballyluskey (8/1) for Steven Mahon.
Mikie Fogarty, who had a fairly full book of rides all week, had his second Limerick winner on Thursday in the €16,000 Novice Chase on Undressed (6/1), for popular local veteran trainer, Michael Hourigan.
On the closing day at Leopardstown, J.J. Slevin got his third winner of the week after his Down Royal double on Monday when he steered home Exactoris (4/1) for his cousin, Joseph O’Brien, and owner, J.P. McManus, in the €26,000 Top Oil EBF Novice handicap hurdle, beating Ruby Walsh into second.
At Punchestown on Saturday, Seán Flanagan was second on Noel Meade’s Monksland (9/4) behind Jessie Harrington’s 7/4 favourite, Supasundae, in the €20,000 hurdle.
There was a sizeable Wexford contingent at the traditional New Year’s Day meeting at Tramore but they picked up just one win - Paul Nolan’s Peculiar Genius (10/1) scoring under David Mullins in the handicap hurdle.
Fairyhouse on Sunday was a blank meeting for Wexford connections, having to be content with three seconds.
Sue Bramall trains near Clonegal and she came closest to success with her Diamond Cauchois ridden by Andrew Ring up front most of the way before being collared by a late Ruby Walsh surge on Shannak in the handicap hurdle.
Jonathan Moore was second on Noel Meade’s Gettysburg Address in the maiden hurdle, and Jamie Codd was second in the bumper on Derrinross behind another Mullins hotshot, Next Destination, going down by less than a length after a powerful drive.
At this halfway point of the National Hunt season, a few Wexford jockeys have done very well so far, with three in the championship top 20.
Seán Flanagan is seventh on 34 winners; remarkably as an amateur, Jamie Codd is in twelfth place on 23, mostly gained in bumpers, and Mikey Fogarty is 17th on 17 winners. Codd’s 30% winning strike rate is only exceeded by the champion, Ruby Walsh.