Codd hits 900 mark
Another major milestone for Jamie
JAMIE CODD reached another major career milestone at the East Antrim meeting at Loughanmore on Saturday when a double saw him hit the 900 career winner mark, only the second rider along with Derek O’Connor to achieve such incredible figures.
He won on Peter Flood’s impressive Beyond Redemption in a four-year-old maiden, and he struck again in the concluding older maiden on Pegase Amour for Liam Lennon, beating Noel Meade’s Bronco Bill to reach the 900.
Jamie, from a notable Mayglass horse family but now living with his wife and family in Monasterevin, Kildare, rode his first winner in the 2001-’02 season after a handful of rides in the previous two years.
He really began to hit his stride in the 2005-’6 season when he broke 50 for the first time, and he has been a model of consistency ever since.
He was unlucky to be in the same era as eleven times champion Derek O’Connor and has had some epic battle with him, none more so than in 2010-’11 when he rode 104 winners from nearly 400 rides and was still second to O’Connor’s 110.
Codd was champion rider in 2013, when he eventually halted O’Connor’s unbroken ten-year reign, and in 2016, and lost out by just one to fellow Wexfordman, Barry O’Neill, in 2017. O’Connor is the all-time leader with 1,195 wins, and Codd is a clear second in the lists.
Champion Barry O’Neill scored a double at Lisronagh on Saturday with Takingitallin, Colin Bowe’s daughter of Fame and Glory, in the four-year-old mares’ maiden, beating Harley Dunne on Shark Hanlon’s Dime a Dozen by a length, with the Mark Scallan (Cleariestown) handled and ridden Keyboard Joan in third.
Dunne and the Shark reversed positions in the four-year-old geldings’ maiden with their Mister seeing off O’Neill on Bowe’s Éclair Des Sablons by a length and a half.
O’Neill completed his double in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden on Gearóid O’Loughlin’s Sidetracked, getting home by a head from Declan Queally’s Bothar Dubh.
The first domestic meeting of the season was staged by the Wexford Hunt at their Moorfields, Ballinaboola track and despite recent rain it went off well, attracting nearly 60 runners.
Features of a day when Wexford connections dominated were doubles for riders Gary Murphy from Ballycullane and Rob James, and trainer and owner Ashleigh and Michael Murphy from Duncormick.
The Murphys took the opener with Fearless Fracas in the Monbeg Stables four-year-old maiden, from Rob James on Is a Real Champ for Seán Doyle and Shinrock Fame for Barry O’Neill and Colin Bowe.
They followed up with Cool Destination in the Horse and Hound Hotel five-year-old geldings’ maiden, from Luke Murphy on Denis Murphy’s Classical Daytime and O’Neill on Seán Doyle’s Plan of Escape.
Rob James kept up his strong start to the season with victories in the Cooney Furlong Winner of One on Donnchadh Doyle’s Winged Leader, from Benny Walsh on Singing Banjo, and in the Wexford Hunt older maiden with My Forever Friend for Shark Hanlon, from Alison Murphy’s Winsor Vixen.
Benny Walsh from Murrintown trained and rode Tuff Nano to an all-the-way success in the NitroFert adjacent mares’ maiden for Peter Aspel, from Aaron Sinnott on Robert McCabe’s Proper Ticket and Shane O’Rourke on Vincent Devereux’s Getawaytonewbay.
The Ballywalter Farms Opens for novice riders was the only race to leave the county, with Gerry Spain winning on Sam Curling’s (Cashel) Some Are Lucky.
There was just one Wexford winner at Dromahane in Cork, with Jamie Codd scoring on Denis Murphy’s Take It Away in the fouryear-old mares’ maiden, from Subtle Quest under James Kenny for Colin Bowe and Outonpatrol under ‘Paddy’ Scallan for Seán Doyle.
Codd and Murphy were second in the four-year-old geldings’ maiden with Grey Getaway, behind Derek O’Connor on Wherewouldugetit.
O’Connor had his second treble in two days and is two behind Barry O’Neill on eleven wins; Rob James is on ten with Jamie Codd on seven.
Next Sunday the Wicklow Hunt races at Fairwood, Tinahely, and they also run at Tortulla near Thurles.