O’Neill edges Codd
National title decided in the last race
THE BATTLE between reigning champion Jamie Codd and challenger Barry O’Neill for the national point-to-point riders’ title went right down to the final race of the season at Ballingarry yesterday (Monday).
O’Neill was leading by three but Codd won two on Monday and had a chance to share the title by winning again in the last.
Codd was forced to pull up on his brother, Willie’s, Fivecardstud and the title was O’Neill’s for the first time even though he finished third on Colin Bowe’s Lord Getaway.
Codd was the reigning champion, having beaten O’Neill into second last year, but the Ballindaggin man had led for the entire season and deserved to hold out.
O’Neill had stretched his lead to four in the early stages at Kinsale on Saturday with a double, but Codd struck back with a double of his own.
O’Neill went to Ballingarry on Sunday and had a great treble, while Codd had a double at Kinsale making it 66-63 going into the final day.
O’Neill has wrapped up the Eastern circuit riders’ title with 28 wins, ending Codd’s eleven years of unbroken dominance. He was favourite to lift the big title for the first time as there were only four available races on Monday but Codd never gives up.
The weekend was not without tragedy as champion horse of the year contender, Sprinting for gold, was found to have died at James Doyle’s Monageer stable. He had won eight times for the Monbeg Syndicate since his maiden success at Lingstown in December.
He shared top spot with Ourm-anmassini which will take the title because of better placed results. My sympathy to James Doyle and all at Monbeg.
Several other title races were also still to be resolved on the closing day, and we will have full details on all of those contests in next week’s issue.
Shane Fitzgerald from Buttevant in Cork is based with Michael Goff at Clondaw in Ferns and he moved into the lead in the novice riders’ title race with a double on Saturday night, putting him ahead of Liam Quinlan by 19 to 18, while Codd had cut Rob James’ lead in the race for the Southern circuit riders’ crown to just two, 24 to 22.
One other major championship is decided - Colin Bowe from Kitealy, on 32 winners, will be champion trainer for the fifth time, with his neighbour Donnchadh Doyle on 26 and Denis Murphy from The Ballagh on 25.
On Saturday night at Kinsale there was Wexford domination. Barry O’Neill’s double came courtesy of his great northern training ally, David Christie, via Corella Creek in the mares’ winners of one, and old friend Maple Mons in the mares’ open where Michael Goff’s Senator’s Glory did well to be second after a three and a half years absence.
Jamie Codd hit back to win the last two races and keep his hopes alive, on Ourmanmassini in the Open where odds-on favourite Eddies Miracle made a final fence mistake under O’Neill, and on Jimmy Mangan’s Merry Milan in the finale.
Shane Fitzgerald’s two wins came in good style in both divisions of the five years old geldings’ maiden, on Michael Goff’s ninth of the season, The Road Home, and on Shay Slevin’s O’Hanrahan Bridge, the handler’s third of the season.
O’Neill went to Ballingarry on Sunday and his treble came on Sunrise Lady, trained by Wexford Cheltenham hero, Conor O’Dwyer; on Boston Spray trained by Joseph O’Brien, both five-year-old maidens, and for the second day in a row on Maple Mons.
Shane O’Rourke (Foulksmills) won the opening four-year-old mares’ maiden on Colin Bowe’s Western Perk (Westerner-Ellens Perk).
Jamie Codd stayed in Kinsale and had a double to keep himself in contention, the first thanks to his brother, Willie, and his Letitbeso (Ask-Persian Heroine) in the fouryear-old mares’ maiden, and the second on Rose of Coolavin for Donie Hasssett in the older mares’ maiden.
Donnchadh Doyle kept his good season going to the very end, with Jimmy O’Rourke winning a thrilling four-year-old geldings’ maiden by a head on his Sarozov (Morozov-Star of Arcady), with O’Rourke being unshipped just after the line.