O’Brien, Jacob churn out winners
THE MAIN focus is now on the flat as the Classics and the big festival meetings get into full flow.
In Britain, Aidan O’Brien was involved in a number of important trials and Cup races at Chester and Lingfield and farmed a few of the big races as usual.
He picked up three at Chester - the £76,000 Cheshire Oaks with Magic Wand, with his Forever Together second; the £76,000 Dee Stakes with Rostropovich (5/2f), and the £101,000 Group 3 Ormonde Stakes with Idaho (8/11f).
At the Lingfield trials on Saturday, two wellbacked favourites failed to strike, Flattering (6/4) third in the Oaks test and Kew Gardens (8/11) second in the Derby race.
He compensated with a double at the Curragh with Land Force (11/10f) and Bye Bye Baby (11/4) in the featured €75,000 Blue Wind Stakes.
He missed out on the big money on a rich Curragh card on Sunday but did pick the concluding humble maiden with Southern France (8/15).
Jim Bolger has been having a quiet enough start to the flat season but he had a double at Gowran Park on Wednesday evening with Dream of Words (14/1) and Aiseolas (13/8f), and he followed up at the Curragh on Sunday with Zorion (13/2) in a €26,000 handicap.
Pat McDonald had three winners last week, two at Chester for Mark Johnston - the wellbacked No Lippy (1/1) in a £25,000 two-yearold sprint, and Austrian School (3/1), and he won by a short head at Thirsk on Saturday on Searanger (16/1) for Rebecca Menzies..
Over the jumps in Ireland there were no winners but a variety of places at Down Royal on Monday, the closest being the neck defeat of Liz Doyle’s Just me myself and i (6/1) under Donagh Meyler in a three and a half miles beginners’ chase. This was a promising run for the Well Oiled syndicate.
Mosie McCabe (Adamstown) was a bit unlucky not to have a winner at Roscommon on Tuesday. His The Kings Baby (10/3) was pipped by a head under J.J. Slevin in a beginners’ chase by a Willie Mullins-trained favourite, Screaming Rose (11/8), after suffering a couple of bumps. The stewards surprisingly allowed the result to stand; the ‘small man’ seldom gets the breaks.
There was a strong Wexford showing in a beginners’ chase at Tipperary on Thursday, with Ricky Doyle pulling off a 14/1 surprise on Colin Bowe’s Amaulino, from Rob James on Kaiser Black (11/4f) and Seán Flanagan on Noel Meade’s Stoneford.
Daryl Jacob keeps churning out the jumps winners in Britain, despite often travelling for just one or two rides.
He had four last week - at Warwick on Simply the Betts (3/10f), at Newton Abbot on Desirable Court (11/8), and a nice-priced 58/1 double at Wincanton on Thursday on Djin Conti (11/2) and Stradivarius Davis (8/1).