Geraghty enjoyed super Cheltenham day on Zeb
TOP JUMPS jockey Barry Geraghty announced his retirement on Saturday night, at the age of 40.
He has been riding for 23 years and has enjoyed remarkable success at the very highest levels, and all the main races at Cheltenham are included in his tally of 43 Festival winners.
The only one with more is Ruby Walsh on 59, and A.P. McCoy is third on 31.
He is also second only to Ruby Walsh in the number of Grade 1 races he has won, the only two to exceed the one hundred mark. His 121 includes two Gold Cups, four Champion Hurdles, and five Champion Chases.
One of those Champion Chases was on Big Zeb in 2010, and this has a special resonance for Co. Wexford – the horse was trained at Killena near Ballycanew in north Wexford by Colm Murphy, and owned by Gorey hotelier, Patrick Redmond.
I was delighted to be there as he lowered the colours of Master Minded, considered the Festival banker going for his third win in the race, but he failed to perform and it was Forpaddytheplasterer who was second, six lengths behind the Wexford horse who gave a great display of jumping.
Geraghty’s final Grade 1 was another for McManus at Cheltenham this year, and it was one of his most spectacular as he coaxed an amazing run out of Champ up the hill to make up over ten lengths for a thrilling success in the RSA.
He rode 1,920 winners in total, exceeded only by McCoy, Walsh and Richard Johnson.
There was not a lot of jumping last week, but at Killarney on Tuesday there was an-all Wexford gamble landed in the concluding Beginners’ Chase, with Seán O’Keeffe steering home front-running Knock on Steel (10/3) by over a length for trainer Brian Jordan (Rathangan), and owner and breeder, Richard and Susan Eustace respectively.
The horse was 12/1 in the morning and was backed all the way in to open at 3/1 on the course. This was the horse’s first win in 18 outings but the seven-year-old had advertised his well-being when third of 15 over hurdles on her re-appearance at Tipperary on June 20.
Jonathan Moore and trainer Gavin Cromwell combined again to score in the handicap hurdle on Friary Gold (15/8f), with O’Keeffe well back in third on Zinat (11/2).
They made it two in a row when they followed up in the opening maiden hurdle at Bellewstown on Wednesday, Moore cruising in by six lengths on Bentham (11/10f).
At Kilbeggan on Friday there were wins for J.J. Slevin and Jonathan Moore. Slevin scored on Joseph O’Brien’s hotshot, Arthurian flame (11/10), in a maiden hurdle, and Moore made practically all on a well-backed Jerandme (3/1) for Noel Meade in a beginners’ chase.
Jamie Codd was hotly fancied to maintain his good bumper run on Gordon Elliott’s Geraldo (8/13) but was comfortably held in the closing stages by his stable mate, Talk of the Town (20/1).
On the flat, Aidan O’Brien sent just four horses over to England for the Dante meeting at York and the three-day July meeting at Newmarket and made little impact.
In the July Cup sprint at Newmarket on Saturday, 21 years old Cieren Fallon won his first Group 1 on Oxted (12/1), a race his famous father, six times champion jockey Kieren, was never able to win.
Aidan also sent two to Deauville in France for the Group 1 Jean Prat race over seven furlongs, in which Pinatubo was 2/1 on favourite and got back to winning ways after a couple of top-level defeats had taken the gloss off last year’s unbeaten six-race run as a two-year-old. He was chased all the way to the line by O’Brien’s Lope Y Fernandez (a generous 20/1).
On the flat at Navan on Thursday, Donagh O’Connor was foiled as he attempted to maintain his winning run, with Johnny Levins’ Eluthera (11/4f) being beaten by Pat Martin’s Pretty Smart (5/1).
They got back on track at the Curragh on Friday when winning by half a length on Nordic Passage (10/1) from Mick Halford’s Sendmylovetoyou (11/1).
Levins was very happy with his young rider: ‘It’s nice to get a winner up the Curragh. He got a lovely ride from Donagh.
‘We walked the track together and he covered every blade of grass that we planned. He followed the right horses and hit the front at the right time and had a willing partner.’
Aidan O’Brien had a small team at Leopardstown on Saturday and picked up a twelve-furlong handicap with Elizabethofaragon (6/1) under Wayne Lordan.
At Cork on Sunday, Jim Bolger took the opener with his only runner at the meeting, Eastern Voice (5/4f) under Kevin Manning.
Taramansour (2/1) won the three-year-old maiden for Dermot Weld and Chris Hayes, from O’Brien and Lordan on Monument Valley (8/11f).
Jessica Harrington is flying and won the two big races of the day, including the Group 3 with Valeria Messalina.
Aidan sent a couple to Dundalk, but Hyde Park Barracks (2/1f) had to give best to Kevin Prendergast’s Mahaaseel (11/4) in a two-year-old maiden.
It was an unlucky day for Donagh O’Connor, being beaten in two races by a nose. Miss Cunning (22/1) pipped Dark Magic (4/1), and Aidan O’Brien’s Nobel Prize held on by the same tiny margin in the €50k Group 3 Ballysax Stakes to beat O’Connor on Indicative Vote (9/2 from 16s) for Ger Lyons.