Cross-country point-to-point wins
THERE WAS Wexford point-to-point success across the country last weekend with six riders and six handlers recording wins in Down, Cork and Tipperary.
The ever-reliable pairing of Jamie Codd and trainer Denis Murphy (Ballyboy, The Ballagh) collected yet another four-year-old maiden at Moira, Co. Down, on Saturday, with Codd at his strongest to get Beyond The Storm (Flemensfirth-Blue Gale) home by a neck. Codd had won the bumper at Doncaster the previous evening.
There was a first win of the season for rider Mark Scallan (Cleariestown) and trainer Ivan Walker (Bunclody) in the five- and six-yearsold mares’ maiden with Good Auld Times (Olden Times-Hazelhall Princess).
Half a length back was Harley Dunne on Philip Rothwell’s Il Snepasserontpas. Walker had big success with Threeswallowsnick in the 2015-’16 season.
No one travelled farther than Pierce Power from The Hook, Fethard, but it paid off as his Burning Ambition (Scorpion-Wyndham Miss Sally) had his fourth successive win in the open race under Rob James (Killanne). Second was Barry O’Neill on David Christie’s Sambremont.
At Mainstown, near Carrick-on-Suir, O’Neill and trainer Colin Bowe maintained the Wexford stranglehold on the four-year-old maidens with Straight Red (Westerner-Stratosphere). Well held in second was Rob James on Cormac Doyle’s (Ballindaggin) Geordielandgansta, in a race with five fallers at the first fence.
Eddie Keating (Gusserane) steered home Turndownthevolume (Stowaway-Wronginokanagan) in the older mares’ maiden, giving Clonroche owner/trainer Roy Tector his first win since the 2014-’15 season.
At the United Hunt meeting at Ballindenisk in Cork, Richard Black (Bunclody) had his second win of the season with imposing newcomer Mount Rushmoore (Shantou-Knock on the Door), under James Hannon, in the five-years-old plus geldings’ maiden, holding on by a head from Gerry Mangan on Supremely Lucky.
Black hit the headlines at the Tattersalls Cheltenham sale back in March when he sold his five-year-old mare, Maire Banrigh (out of King’s Theatre), for a mares’ world record £320,000. He’ll be hoping for something similar with Mount Rushmoore.
Carlow Farmers race at Borris House on Sunday, the Louth Hunt race at Tattersalls Farm, and there’s a meet in Boulta in Cork. These are the last fixtures before Christmas and racing resumes at Templenacarriga, Midleton, Co. Cork, on December 31.