ROUND-UP BY PEGASUS Three for Slevin in busy festive week
HORSE RACING Stephen’s Day success at Down Royal
IN A week dominated by the Leopardstown and Limerick racing festivals, Down Royal was not the most glamorous location on St. Stephen’s Day, but it was the most successful for Wexford connections.
J.J. Slevin from Kiltrea, Enniscorthy, who turned professional earlier in the year, scored a double in the first two races, and Jamie Codd picked up yet another bumper winner.
Slevin went on to make it three for the week at Leopardstown on Thursday, and it was a good week also for Mikey Fogarty with two winners in Limerick, and for Daryl Jacob on both sides of the Irish sea.
Slevin opened at Down Royal in the €14,000 Beginners’ Chase with a smooth win on board Liz Doyle’s well-backed Last Goodbye (10/1 in the morning into 7/2 jf), and followed up in the next on Moonlone Lane (8/1) for Dubliner Paul Stafford.
He went very close to making it a treble in the maiden hurdle when pipped by a neck on Turbojet, behind Henry De Bromhead’s Gigginstown runner, Calino D’airy.
Jamie Codd rode another bumper winner for Gordon Elliott and Michael O’Leary when he kept on strongly on Broken Soul to score by nearly five lengths.
At Leopardstown on Monday, Seán Flanagan scored on Joey Sasa (3/1) for his boss, Noel Meade, in the maiden hurdle, winning snugly.
Mikey Fogarty was unlucky in the €26,500 Racing Post App chase when he seemed to have the race at his mercy before crashing out at the last on Powersbomb (9/1), leaving Jim Culloty’s Lake Takapuna to take the spoils.
At Limerick on Tuesday, the best result was a second for Fogarty and trainer Colin Bowe’s Tranquil Magic (20/1) in the two-mile handicap hurdle. Fogarty got third in the graded €50,000 Tim Duggan Memorial handicap chase on Barry Murphy’s Pairofbrowneyes (5/1 jf), winner of the race a year earlier.
Barry O’Neill, leading point-topoint rider this season, scored with a good ride in the bumper at Limerick on Wednesday on Ballyluskey (8/1) for Steven Mahon.
Mikie Fogarty, who had a fairly full book of rides all week, had his second Limerick winner on Thursday in the €16,000 Novice Chase on Undressed (6/1), for popular local veteran trainer, Michael Hourigan.
On the closing day at Leopardstown, J.J. Slevin got his third winner of the week after his Down Royal double on Monday when he steered home Exactoris (4/1) for his cousin, Joseph O’Brien, and owner, J.P. McManus, in the €26,000 Top Oil EBF Novice handicap hurdle, beating Ruby Walsh into second.
At Punchestown on Saturday, Seán Flanagan was second on