True grit from Codd
National trial won with ‘rodeo’ ride
JAMIE CODD had to show all his famous strength in a gruelling €80,000 three and a half mile Grand National trial at Punchestown on Sunday to carve out a hard-earned win on the very well-backed The Big Dog (5/2f), getting home by half a length despite riding with his feet out of the stirrups.
Screaming Colours (9/1) under Conor Orr mounted a serious challenge and had a ten-pound advantage, but Codd was not for passing and carved out a memorable success with a candidate for one of the rodeo rides of the year. The Big Dog may be aimed at Cheltenham now but whether Jamie will be there to ride him remains to be seen.
This was his 30th winner of the season from just 110 rides, a strike rate of more than 26%. With more than two months to go in the season, he has already surpassed all his seasonal totals with the exception of 2016-’17 when he had 40 winners to beat Patrick Mullins to the amateur jockeys’ title.
Liz Doyle’s Farmix (4/1 from 6s) was a convincing winner of a rated novice chase under Jack Kennedy. He made a mistake when leading five fences out and was joined three out but had lots left in the can and asserted to get home by five lengths from Robbie Power on Dinny Lacey.
Rob James got second of 20 in Division 1 of the two and a half mile maiden hurdle on Colin Bowe’s Casey West (33/1 in the morning into 8/1), a good run but well beaten by Pont Aval (9/2) for Townend and Mullins.
Another top point-to-point handler, Seán Doyle from Monbeg, was second of 20 in Division 2 with Ahead of the Field (14/1), though a long way behind another Townend/Mullins hotshot, Jungle Boogie (2/13).
Codd and Liz Doyle were also to the fore at Naas a day earlier. Jamie was the only Wexford winner, scoring in the concluding bumper.
Despite drifting in the betting, he was a comfortable winner on Gordon Elliott’s Eyewitness (13/2).
The only other notable show at Naas was by Liz Doyle’s Feelgood Island (9/2), owned by Mrs. Rath, which finished third of thirteen in a €20k novice hurdle under Seán O’Keeffe.
He led at the last but lost momentum when hitting it quite hard.
James O’Sullivan, the four pound claimer from Camolin, recorded his eighth win of the season and his 23rd on the track in convincing style in the concluding three-mile Opportunity Handicap Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Monday on the well-backed Tom Gibney-trained Regina Dracones (5/2f).
Seán Flanagan has been having a quiet time of it lately but he came very close to a winner in the two and a half mile maiden hurdle when he was pipped by a short head on the line on Noel Meade’s Living’s Boy An Co (8/1). The horse hung left in the last one hundred yards and trainer/rider Denis Hogan took advantage on Quarry Girl (9/2).
J.J. Slevin has been sidelined since last Sunday week when he suffered a collarbone injury in a fall at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown.
Pat Dobbs achieved a landmark in Meydan, Dubai, ten days ago when Canvassed won a six-furlong sprint, giving the Enniscorthy man his 250th victory in the UAE. At Jebel Ali next day he struck in a £100k five-furlong sprint on Al Tariq (14/1).
He has been out of action this past week.
It has become a tradition that the Wexford racing season at Bettyville kicks off on St. Patrick’s Day but there is a change this year, with the first meeting brought forward by a week to Wednesday, March 10.
Other Wexford dates: Friday, April 9; Saturday, May 15; Friday, May 21; Wednesday, June 2; Wednesday, June 16; Friday, July 2; Friday, August 6; Saturday, September 4; Sunday and Monday, October 24 and 25 (bank holiday weekend).