Favourites get back on track at Dundalk
THE favourites drew a blank on Wednesday at Dundalk but the market leaders were quickly off the mark on Friday with joint-favourites fighting out the finish of the opening race, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden.
Never ever say never (2/1jf) had her head in front at the finish and became yet another Dundalk winner for hot freshman sire No Nay Never.
With Chris Hayes currently in Dubai, the winning ride went to Colin Keane.
Trainer Fozzy Stack has introduced a number of good horses at Dundalk in recent years and this could well be another. The winner’s dam, Dowager, won the Listed Bosra Sham Stakes as a two-year-old and this year’s renewal of that race was run earlier in the day at Newmarket, the winner, Angelic Light, being trained at The Curragh by Michael O’Callaghan.
Also based at The Curragh, Johnny Levins landed the Claiming Race on tonight’s card with Hasselnott (14/1), who was winning for the second time in three runs. The winning rider was Donagh O’Connor.
Having won easily at Dundalk on Wednesday, Peshkova was all the rage for the Crowne Plaza Race & Stay Handicap but had to settle for fourth as Dash d’Or (5/1), trained by Kieran Cotter and ridden by Dylan Hogan, made it three wins from her last four races on what was her first run at Dundalk. She has risen 21 pounds in the ratings during that successful run.
It became a second win on the night for Colin Keane when the Ger Lyons-trained First Response (9/10f) won the mile maiden. It was a beautiful ride from Colin who never used his whip on a “fine, big horse, but still green” (Ger Lyons) that travelled well in the race but only got his head in front in the shadow of the post.
First Response races in the colours of Prince Khalid Abdullah and is by First Defence out of Promising Lead who won the Group One Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh in 2006. Both are also owned by Prince Khalid.
There was a ‘boil-over’ in the first division of the Irishinjuredjockeys.com Handicap when Paved Paradise, trained by Edward Harty and ridden by Mark Farragher, won at odds of 40/1 on what was her first run in a handicap and her first run at Dundalk.
The second division went to the Matthew Smith-trained Jackmel (6/1), who was ridden by Sean Davis. It was a first career success for Jackmel, who had run well when third to Clare Island at Dundalk on October 26th and who is a close relation of Aidan O’Brien’s 2005 English 2,000 Guineas winner, Footstepsinthesand.
The feature race of the night, the €25,000 Dundalk Stadium, Light Up Your Night Handicap, went to Freescape (13/2) who, ridden by Oisin Orr, whose brother Conor had ridden a winner at Down Royal earlier in the day, got the better of a good tussle with the well-backed 13/8 favourite Admirality to win by a head. A lovely, big gelding, the winner is lightly-raced and trainer David Marnane’s patience has been rewarded.
The card’s finale, the Christmas Party Nights At Dundalk Stadium Handicap, went to Commander Won (2/1f), who has now won or finished second or third in 11 of his 16 runs at Dundalk. This was his fifth win at the course, the last three of them when ridden by Shane Foley, whose record on the admirable Dermot McLoughlin-trained six-year-old is now 12121.
Dundalk races again on Wednesday November 7th when the track looks forward to welcoming a large contingent of students from the Dundalk Institute Of Technology, whose Students Union sponsors a race on the card.
The first race is due off at 6:30pm (6pm if a race divides).