Profitable night for favourite backers

IT was another good night for the favourites at Dundalk on January 31st with five of the market-leaders winning on the eight-race card.

With six outright-favourites having won at the January 17th fixture, finding winners at the traditionally competitive Dundalk meetings suddenly seems easy!

One consistent source of Dundalk winners, though, is trainer Joseph O’Brien. He took his tally of winners at the Stadium since January 2018 to 63 with a double on Friday’s card.

Firstly, Annie B (5/4 fav) was a fairly comfortable winner of the Crowne Plaza Dundalk Race & Stay Fillies Maiden and then Mr Mooj (8/11 fav) was awarded the Valentine’s Weekend Special At Dundalk Stadium Maiden when the original winner, Kokura, was quite rightly demoted after causing interference to O’Brien’s gelded son of Camelot.

Both of Joseph’s winners were ridden by Declan McDonogh. Annie B is owned by Anna Mary Kehoe, who now has a more-valuable filly - who is a half-sister to eight winners - on her hands.

Mr Mooj is owned by the Williams, Gudinski and Ateam Syndicate and races in the same Lloyd Williams colours as Joseph’s 2017 Melbourne Cup winner, Rekindling.

Having won easily at Dundalk on January 10th on his first run since a gelding operation, the Ado McGuinness-trained Bowerman (4/6 fav) did the same again this week in the Fundraise @ Dundalk Stadium Race in the hands of Ronan Whelan, who a day earlier had been riding at the valuable Dubai Racing Carnival in Dubai.

Winning owners The Total Recall Racing Club have a smart gelding on their hands.

The first favourite to go in on the night was Saga Bolton (9/4) in the Irishinjuredjockeys. com Claiming Race, with the eight-year-old gelding winning quite comfortably under Rory Cleary.

Barry Fitzgerald had sent out his first winner as a trainer when Beauchamp Bagenal won at Dundalk just seven days earlier and had only received Saga Bolton, who has now won three times and been placed twice in eight runs at Dundalk, from owner Nicola Griffin five days before tonight’s victory!

Things seem to taking shape for the County Carlow-based handler, who has held his licence since last July, although he lost the winner, who was successfully claimed after tonight’s race and has joined Brian McMahon.

The fifth winning favourite on the evening came in the card’s finale, Division Two of the Party Nights At Dundalk Stadium Handicap, when Lightning Charlie (7/2), who was only recently acquired by Dundalk Bay Sea Foods Limited, arrived late on the scene to win on what was his first run in an eye-shield and his first run for trainer John Feane. The winning jockey was Robbie Colgan.

Division One of the race saw a rousing finish, with the Rockview Racing-owned Bellick (7/1) beating French by a neck, with a nose separating that horse from Eleuthera in third.

Winning trainer John McConnell paid tribute to winning rider Siobhan Rutledge, saying: “She’s a really good rider and improving all the time. That’s her ten-pound claim gone now but she is still good value for seven pounds.”

The opening race of the night, the Winter Series Awards At Dundalk Stadium Handicap, was won by May Remain (8/1), who is trained by Pat Murphy, owned by Diane Murphy and was ridden by Gavin Ryan. Remarkably, the five-year-old gelding has now won three of his last five races, all of them at Dundalk, but could now be sold as he is heading for the sales-ring.

Finally, there was a welcome return to the winner’s enclosure for jockey Donagh O’Connor, who rode his first winner since returning from a back injury sustained in a fall at Cork last August when Nordic Passage (10/1) landed the Bet On The Best Night Out At Dundalk Stadium Handicap.

In comments that emphasise just how passionate jockeys are about their work, Donagh said: “I was itching to get back and I’m looking forward to the new season”.

An 11,000 guineas purchase, the winner was formerly with Britain’s champion trainer John Gosden but is now with Johnny Levins on The Curragh.

Johnny paid tribute to David Spratt and Phil Byrnes, who acquired the now Hugh Wardowned winner. “They told me to be patient with him,” he said, adding, “He could be an improving horse.”

Next Meeting

Dundalk will race again on Friday February 7th when a seven-race card is due to start at 5:30pm. Given the demand from professionals for racing at the Stadium, this will again probably become an eight-race card that starts at 5pm.