Wild Bullitt scores runaway win in A7 525 sweepstake final for Tralee’s Eugene O’Brien

THE final of an A7 525 sweepstake headed up the programme at Tralee Track on Saturday night and the handsome winner’s purse of €1,200 for this class (thanks to sponsorship provided by Kerry GOBA) was claimed by local owner, Eugene O’Brien, whose charge, Wild Bullitt, scored a runaway victory in the quite brilliant time of 28.68 (.10 fast).

Wild Bullitt, the only unbeaten finalist, was sent off the even-money favourite by Berkie Browne and victory was assured for this wide seed once he was able to clear the opening bend ahead of another fast starter, the Michael A Reidyowned Feora Bucks.

The gap in his favour grew quite wide as the race progressed and amounted to seven and a half lengths over Feora Bucks at the finishing line, with a further three lengths back to Dan Wren’s Steeple Rd Ben.

The winning time of 28.68 by Wild Bullitt means a big step-up in class for the August ’22 son of Burgess Bucks and Ardnaculliasouth, but Eugene O’Brien will savour it all after this outstanding victory.

Also on Saturday night’s programme were the semi-finals of two 525 sweepstakes carrying the name of Lee Strand Creamery and they will be brought to a conclusion as part of the supporting programme for the €10,000-tothe-winner Lee Strand 550 final this Saturday night.

First up were three semi-finals of a Novice 2 sweepstake (winner, €720) and there was a quite sensational run of 28.32 in the first of them by Missile One, jointly-owned by Michael and Kevin O’Connor from Ballyduff.

This fellow won by ten lengths from Maglass Rambler and, of course, his time meant automatic elimination from the sweepstake (it being first time out by him). It will hardly worry the joint-owners too much, though, because Missile One has taken one hell of a hike in value.

There was also an outstanding run of 28.72 in the second semi-final by the Jack Kennelly-trained Casements Fort and no question of elimination here, especially with the track running .10 fast, and Casements Fort has to be the one to beat from a trap 3 draw in Saturday night’s final after beating Kevins Rocket, a litter brother to none other than Missile One, by three and a half lengths.

Also impressive in winning the third semi-final, even if his time of 29.14 was nicely behind that of Casements Fort, was Letter Racer, owned and trained by Thomas M Sugrue, of Duagh. He scored by two lengths from Cape Moon.

The second of the Lee Strand sweepstakes to be brought to the final stage was for Novice 3 class and John Geoghegan, of Athea, could well be claiming the winner’s purse of €1,250 this Saturday night with Slippy James, which was very impressive in scoring a 10-length victory in the third semi-final over Pulleen Blackie in 28.93.

There was plenty to like, too, about Ferry Rose, which won the second semi-final in 29.10 for Helen O’Connor and Shaun Wren, of Ballylongford, while the remaining semi-final, the first, was won in 30.01 by Eamon Dowling’s Killeacle Noel.

Ignore the latter’s time, because he is a lot better than that, and, to end the night well for Eamon Dowling, he won the concluding A7/ A8 525 in 29.75 with Killeacle Brian.

Racing opened with a very good run of 28.93 in an A9/ A10 525 by Shronedragh Mick, owned by Tim Kelly, of Headford, while the other winners were John O’Shea’s Gentle Winnie (29.32) and the Michael A Reidy-trained Arais Arís (18.04).