Pure relief for O’Leary as Samcro flies home

HE has been hailed as the new Messiah of Irish racing and Samcro didn’t let his supporters or his owner Michael O’Leary down. The Gordon Elliott-trained gelding initiated a landslide of Irish success only interrupted by Altior’s win in the Champion Chase. O’Leary admitted he had been ‘s******g bricks’ before the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle — but he need not have worried. Samcro might not have won as impressively as looked likely when 18-year-old jockey Jack Kennedy kicked on. But he did the job clinically and fended off Black Op by two-and-three-quarter lengths. Ryanair boss O’Leary had endured a disappointing first day with his odds-on favourite Apple’s Jade being beaten. It meant he had to resort to a superstition, much to the disgust of his wife Anita. O’Leary said: ‘I bought this jacket two years ago and my wife hates it. ‘But I wore it the day Don Cossack won the Gold Cup and the day Rule The World won the Grand National. We had a bad day so I said the dirty jacket is coming out. I might wear it for the rest of the week and I might go to sleep in it.’ Samcro has the stamp of a chaser and, while it could be two years away, if he stays sound his career path will surely intersect at some point with that of Presenting Percy. Percy added a seven-length win in the RSA Chase to his victory in the 2017 Pertemps Hurdle Final. Owner Philip Reynolds, the son of late Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, hailed Presenting Percy’s trainer Patrick Kelly as a ‘genius’. What Kelly thought, no-one knows as he waved away TV interviewers and refused to answer questions. He never speaks to the media. It could make the build-up to next year’s meeting interesting! Elliott completed a treble with further successes from Keith Donoghue-ridden Tiger Roll in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase and Kennedy-ridden Veneer Of Charm in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle. His rival Willie Mullins piled in with Mark Walsh-riddden Bleu Berry in the Coral Cup and Katie Walshridden Relegate in the Champion Bumper. The pair have won eight of the 14 races so far.

58,932 The crowd at Cheltenham yesterday was the largest for Ladies Day since 2005