Slevin in fine form while Flanagan wins Grade A
J.J. SLEVIN was the jockey in form during the week, scoring four wins in three meetings plus a number of placed rides.
Seán Flanagan must share top billing for his success in the €75,000 Grade A feature at Fairyhouse on Saturday on a 20/1 outsider.
The race was the Dan and Joan Moore Memorial Handicap Chase, honouring a great racing couple, and Flanagan was on board Daly Tiger for Noel Meade and Gigginstown Stud.
He had his mount perfectly placed to avail of late jumping errors by the Willie Mullins-trained Pont Aven, second at 10/1, and the recent Michael Winters-trained Cheltenham winner, Chatham Street Lad (7/4f), when the Cork man celebrated with a televised roll in the mud!
It is quite likely Flanagan would have won anyway as he had five lengths and seven lengths to spare at the end.
Daly Tiger had scored at 22/1 at Fairyhouse last November before disappointing last time out. ‘He’s done it well,’ Flanagan commented.
At Fairyhouse on Tuesday, J.J. Slevin scored a 20/1 double for his first cousin, Joseph O’Brien.
He was eight and a half lengths clear of 13 rivals in the two-mile beginners’ chase on the well-backed Duc D’allier (9/2).
He followed up in the two and a half mile maiden hurdle in the purple and gold colours of the Rectory Road Holdings syndicate’s Fun Light (11/4).
He took it up after the last and kept on well to get home by nearly two lengths.
Slevin made it three next day at Naas when he won the opening mares’ beginners’ chase with Miss Pernickety (4/7f), trained by Joseph O’Brien for his sister, Sarah. He stayed on well after some early mistakes to win by five and a half lengths.
Belle Metal (9/4f) was a very impressive winner of the bumper for Jodie Townend and Willie Mullins, but Tiernan Power-Roche (Tomhaggard) took second on Eamon Sheehy’s Captain Conby (10/1), a neck ahead of Jamie Codd on Gordon Elliott’s Eyewitness (5/1).
Slevin kept up his winning run at Fairyhouse on Saturday when he turned over a Willie Mullins hotpot with a typically aggressive ride on La Chanteuse (10/1) for Steven Crawford, finishing six lengths in front of Manitopark (8/11f) in a mares’ maiden hurdle.
He had earlier finished second in the first two races, well beaten on Druid’s Altar (11/1) in a two-mile hurdle, and on Global Equity (6/5), four lengths behind Mark Walsh on Roseys Hollow (10/11).
Jamie Codd and Gordon Elliott had a facile victory in the concluding bumper with Gerri Colombe (8/13), romping home by 24 lengths from a strung-out field.
Paddy Power has put him up at 14/1 for the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham but Elliott thought this might be it for the season as he sees the horse as a chaser in the making.
His only other run was when winning his point-to-point maiden at Lingstown last March for Colin Bowe and Barry O’Neill.
Bowe had acquired him for a hefty €85k the previous June at the Tattersalls Derby Sale, but a few days after his Lingstown win he was passed on to Elliott at the Cheltenham sale for £240,000 Stg.
Bowe got a third in the concluding amateur riders’ chase at Punchestown on Sunday with his wife’s Cushinstown Finest (20/1), given a good ride by Jordan Gainford.
Earlier, Bowe’s former inmate, Envoi Allen, remained unbeaten when winning his eleventh race in a row, but the first fence fall of Willie Mullins’ Asterion Furlonge robbed the race of much of its interest.
On the flat, trainer Cormac Farrell (Bunclody) sent out a winning favourite at Dundalk last Monday, with Woodrow (11/8) coming in nearly five lengths clear in a six-furlong maiden under Rory Cleary.
In Britain, P.J. McDonald had three winners from his 14 rides – New Dynasty (16/1) by a short head at Newcastle, Intuitive (9/2) at Lingfield on Saturday, and hotshot Ghost Rider (2/7) for Mark Johnston at Southwell on Sunday.