Codd’s dash worth it
Wins at two venues on the same day
JUST TWO point-to-point meetings survived the weather conditions this week, at Loughanmore in Antrim on Easter Monday and at Dromahane in Cork on Sunday, and the Wexford impact was limited.
The Island Hunt meeting at Courtown has been re-fixed for Saturday, April 21; entries have to be made again and close on Tuesday, April 17.
At Loughanmore, in very testing conditions, Jamie Codd had a double to Barry O’Neill’s one. He won the six-year-old geldings’ maiden quite easily on Brian Hamilton’s Some Response, and took the mares’ winner of two on Sliabh Mhuire for Paurick O’Connor (brother of top rider, Derek, who was riding in Cork).
O’Neill had struck first in the opening Winner of Two adjacent race with a good ride on Colin McKeever’s Mayohill, owned by local track landowner, Wilson Dennison.
Jimmy O’Rourke from Glenville, Wexford, made the long trip pay off with a win in the older mares’ maiden on Castlecatt for Graeme Martin, while Luke Murphy from Inch, who has been in hot form lately, had to take second on his only ride in the novice riders’ race.
Codd and O’Neill made a quick dash to the Grand National meeting at Fairyhouse on Monday for the closing bumper and it paid off for Codd who won the €20,000 pot on Gordon Elliott’s Getaway John, repeating their success of February 11 at Punchestown. O”Neill was down the field on Derby for Willie Mullins.
Rob James, another prominent point-to-point pilot, had a ride in the Grand National on one of Gordon Elliott’s legions, top weight Outlander, and officially finished ninth, being pulled up before the last when running out of gas.
At the Dromahane meeting, James Kenny (son of trainer Liam from Craanford), foiled the Wexford yards in the four-year-old maiden, winning for the in-form Pat Doyle from Nenagh with Gigginstown’s Shot to Hell.
The O’Learys have been paying big money to buy promising pointers but now they are turning more to producing their own, with Doyle having a great season for them.
Barry O’Neill was second on Colin Bowe’s favourite, Cobblers Way, with Rob James third on Donnchadh Doyle’s Winged Leader.
After another second, O’Neill got his winner on Colin Bowe’s debutant, Hill Sixteen (Court Cave-Chasers Chic) in the fiveyear-old geldings’ maiden, ahead of Seán O’Keeffe on Liz Doyle’s Spyglass Hill.
O’Connor partnered Pat Doyle’s Sydney Paget to a sixth win of the year in the Open, and he is really in contention now for his twelfth riders’ championship.
Barry O’Neill leads on 35, from Jamie Codd on 34 and O’Connor on 31. In the trainers, Donnchadh Doyle leads Colin Bowe, 20 to 18, with Pat Doyle on 17.
Next weekend they are due to race at Moira, Co. Armagh, on Saturday and on Sunday at Bellurgan Park, Co. Louth, Rathcannon in Limerick, and Stradbally, Co. Laois.
On the track it was a very rare blank week for the Irish jumps jockeys after Fairyhouse on Monday. Cancellations included Wexford on Friday, with the meeting being called off on Wednesday because of waterlogging.
Ironically, it was lovely and sunny at race time on Friday but the course was certainly not fit. The weather gods really do seem to be having a laugh!
In Britain, it was almost as bad but Tom O’Brien made a good return to action at Uttoxeter on Saturday with a nice double on Lunar Flow (10/3) for Jamie Snowden and Secret Legacy (11/8f) for Ian Williams.
P.J. McDonald had just one win from seven rides on the flat, at Chelmsford on Friday on 20/1 shot Andalusite.