Codd, Bowe all set for titles
JAMIE CODD is poised to capture his second Irish Field riders’ championship as he had four winners to Barry O’Neill’s two over the weekend to extend his lead to six, 63 to 57.
The season ends this coming weekend with just three possible racing days for each of them, and it is hard to see Codd being caught.
Next weekend will also see the coronation of Colin Bowe as the champion trainer for the fourth time. He is on 34 winners, two better than his previous best total in 2010-2011.
Donnchadh Doyle, who shared the crown last year with Bowe on 28 winners, will be second this year, finishing on 19 despite a sluggish first half of the season. Denis Murphy will be fourth on the 13-winner mark.
The North Kerry Harriers had their meeting at the old Tralee racecourse on Saturday and it was a good day for Codd who had a double to increase his lead in the jockeys’ championship to six, as nearest challenger, Barry O’Neill, was unable to find a winner.
Codd and trainer Denis Murphy, Ballyboy, The Ballagh, have had a good run in the past couple of months and it continued in the four-year-old maiden with a cosy win for Rock on Rio (Captain Rio-Glory Days), owned by Thomas O’Sullivan.
Codd completed his double in the five-year-old mares’ maiden, and there was some personal pleasure in the win of Call Her Magic, owned by his wife, Robyn, and trained in Kildare by her brother, Ross O’Sullivan. Allie Beag was second for James and John Edward Walsh from Tinahely.
There was a Wexford winner in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden. Harley Dunne went clear after two out on Charlie Papa Lima (Winged Love-Fairylodge Scarlet), trained in Rostoonstown by Vincent Devereux and owned by Philip and Orla Hore. It was the third winner of the season for Devereux.
In the open four-year-old plus race, old stager Theroadtocroker was involved in a thrilling finish under Jamie Codd for Denis Murphy as three horses flashed across the line together, but he had to settle for third, beaten by a head and a head. Winner was October Revolution for the McGraths from Dungarvan.
The action switched to Inchdoney in Cork on Sunday for the Carbery Foxhounds meeting, and Jamie Codd had another double but was matched by Barry O’Neill to keep the lead in the riders’ championship to six.
Codd struck in races two and three. His first came in the fiveyear-old geldings’ maiden on The Pipers Cottage for Pat Coffey from Tipperary; this was Coffey’s third win as an owner-trainer but he is a great supporter of Denis Murphy and has had four winners with him also, with Codd on most of them. Harley Dunne was second on Streets of Milan for Aidan Fitzgerald from Borris.
Codd brought up his double in the winner of one on Bobby Cullen for owner-trainer, Mary Twohig, with a fine front-running ride.
O’Neill did pull one back on one of his ‘regulars’, Maple Mons, trained by David Christie in Fermanagh. It was the horse’s fifth win of the season and O’Neill was on four of them.
And O’Neill struck again in the final race, the older geldings’ maiden, on Article Eleven for Niall Kelleher to peg the lead back to six, but he faces an uphill battle next weekend.
The day had started on a bright note for Wexford connections, filling the first four places in the four-year-old maiden. Winner once again was Donnchadh Doyle and the Monbeg Syndicate with Rising Marienbard (Marienbard-Dromkeen Wood), under Jimmy O’Rourke of Ballycogley. This was O’Rourke’s ninth winner of the season, his best-ever annual tally which has him in the top 20 in the table.
He had just half a length to spare over O’Neill on Colin Bowe’s Mick’s Wish, with Codd third on Denis Murphy’s Forth Cave and Harley Dunne fourth on Seán Doyle’s Monbeg Cave.
Racing next weekend is at Kinsale on Saturday and Sunday, and at Ballingarry on Sunday and Bank holiday Monday, the traditional end-of-season meets.