Double for O’Rourke and Doyle POINT-TO-POINT
RIDER JIMMY O’Rourke (Ballycogley) and trainer Donnchadh Doyle (Ballindaggin) combined for a double for the Monbeg Syndicate in the first two races at the Dungarvan Farmers’ point-to-point meeting on Sunday, but otherwise Wexford connections did not make a major impact.
These were the first two winners of the season for O’Rourke, coming in the five-year-old mares’ and geldings’ races.
Getaway Island (Getaway-Sixty Forty) took it up at the second last and was a snug winner of the mares’ event.
Celtic Rising (an impressive looking son of Curtain Time-Supreme Dollar) was also a convincing winner.
Bought last August, he will now be going to the sales - job done for Donnchadh Doyle who has had a quiet first half of the season by his standards.
He was joint champion trainer with neighbour, Colin Bowe, two years ago, and finished second last season.
These two winners doubled his tally for this season and perhaps are an ominous warning for his rivals that he is getting into his stride.
The pair almost made it a treble in the older mares’ maiden but Shroughmore was beaten by Colin Motherway’s Bessie Boru.
The second half of the meeting was dominated by local man, Declan Queally, who rode and trained three winners - a remarkable performance. Jonathan Fogarty’s (Cleariestown) GI Jayne was second in Division 2 of the older mares’ maiden, ahead of Someone’s Opera, trained by Anthony John Black at Bunclody.
There was a rare blank day for Wexford at the Scarteen Hunt meeting at Kilfeacle in Tipperary.
Jamie Codd made little impact and the best Barry O’Neill could do was a second on Colin Bowe’s Lacken Bridge behind Derek O’Connor on Enda Bolger’s Staker Wallace.
O’Connor had a double and is now third on the riders’ table on 13 winners, with Codd second on 20 and O’Neill still ahead on 23.
Racing next weekend is at Tyrella, Co. Down, on Saturday and at Nenagh (Tipperary) and Midleton (Cork) on Sunday.