Four winners for Mallow’s O’Keeffe
MALLOW jockey Darragh O’Keeffe got off the mark for the season when sharing a Killarney double with trainer Enda Bolger and owner JP McManus last Tuesday week. Everlastingpromise was the big winner as he easily landed the BoyleSports Bourn Vincent Memorial Handicap Chase at odds of 3/1.
The six-year-old was never far off the pace and led leaving the back straight. He was clear over the second last fence and ran out a 13-length winner. It was quite as easy for 4/1 shot Thatbeatsbanagher which beat the Gordon ElliottTimiyan, another owned by McManus, by four lengths in the 2m5f handicap chase.
O’Keeffe added to his Killarney double on Tuesday when taking the opening division of the 2m handicap hurdle at Bellewstown on Thursday aboard the Tom Gibney-trained Elegant Lass. His Killarney winners came at odds of 3/1 and 4/1 but this time he was on board a 50/1 winner, with the five-year-old beating 6/4 chance Shamad into second place with 5/4 favourite Important Message only third.
O’Keeffe then made it four for the week when teaming up with trainer
Ado McGuinness to win the opening division of the 2m4f maiden hurdle at Kilbeggan on Friday with 3/1 chance Politicise. Owned by Dooley & Shamrock Thoroughbreds, the four-year-old got the better of Gavin Cromwell’s Dakota Beat, the 6/5 favourite, by five lengths.
Paul Townend and Willie Mullins combined to win the mares’ beginners chase at Killarney’s Tuesday meeting last week with the Kenny Alexander-owned fiveyearLa Sorelita. She boasted some nice form over the smaller obstacles and has certainly taken to fences well give how she dismissed the opposition on her chasing debut. The 2/1 joint-favourite made all the running and went clear in great style between the final two fences to score by 10-lengths from the Shark Hanlon-trained Dime A Dozen.
Meanwhile, Wayne Lordan completed a double for Joseph O’Brien at Roscommon on Tuesday when winning the race of the day on Pondus. The 6/4 favourite won the Listed Lenebane Stakes with plenty in hand from the Jessica Harrington-trained Camphor and a two and a quarter-lengths was the winning margin at the line. O’Brien had earlier won the apprentice handicap with the Mikey Sheehy-ridden Isotope.
Lordan rode the first of Donnacha O’Brien’s two winners at Gowran Park on Wednesday. He made all the running on Southern Cape to take the opening two-year-old maiden over seven furlongs but had to keep the 1/4 favourite up to his work all the way to the line to hold off the Johnny Murtagh-trained Fourhome two by half a length. O’Brien completed the first double of his training career when the Gavin Ryan-ridden Shale took the fillies’ maiden.
Lordan partnered the easiest winner of the afternoon at Leopardstown on Saturday where Aidan O’Brien’s 5/1 chance Elizabethofaragon made a mockery of her initial handicap rating when taking the second division of the 12f handicap. She scored by all of six lengths from the Michael Halford-trained Tirmizi.
Finny Maguire has to work much harder for his success on the veteran Tandem in the 12f qualified riders’ race. Maguire got the 11-year-old home by two and three-parts of a length from the Katy Brown-trained Persian Lion. He was riding his ninth Leopardstown winner and his 58th winner in all.
Lordan was on the mark again at Cork the following afternoon where he teamed up with County Tipperary trainer Tom Hogan to win the Irish Stallion Farms EBF “Habitat” Handicap on Nebo for owners Julie Routledge-Martin, David Martin and Dan Hall. The five-year-old was sent off a 50/1 chance but scored a three and a half length win from the Ken Condon-trained Ice Cold In Alex, Lordan’s 21st winner of the season.
Elsewhere, Youghal apprentice Killian Hennessy rode the biggest winner of his career when partnering the Aidan O’Brien-trained Nobel Prize to take the Group 3 Woodford Reserve Ballysax Stakes at Dundalk on Sunday. He got the 4/1 chance home by a nose from the Ger Lyons-ridden Indicative Vote.
“I was delighted to get the ride here for Aidan, I ride a lot of work for him at Ballydoyle and he’s been very good to me giving me any spares that come up,” Hennessy said. “Aidan was very confident that he’d get the trip well and his rider at home, James Maher, was very happy with him. I was apprentice to Jim Bolger for four years. I went on to America and England for a bit and I’ve been with Aidan now for a year-and-ahalf. Thankfully, it’s paying off.”