Caesar's Comet was one of 17 horses which ran against oncoming traffic in a terrifying incident last May and today won Bellewstown's Southgate Centre Drogheda Handicap (div II), completing a double for James McAuley.

In May, the trainer was left devastated after his male horses escaped from a field in Naul and, in an incident caught on Dashcam, galloped loose against oncoming traffic on nearby roads. There were no human injuries but two horses were later put down on humane grounds.

Today, Caesar's Comet returned to the winner's enclosure for the first time since July 2021 and the owner/trainer reported “he is actually one of the horses that got on to the roads. He was the only one who returned sound - you could have ridden him out the next day.”

Ridden by Chris Hayes, Casear's Comet was completing a 322/1 double for McAuley who added "he has never run a bad race up here and this is the only track where he gets a mile. He has been a really good servant who works miles better than he runs at the track but he's even a joy to have around the place.”

“We are less than 10 minutes down the road and, in every aspect, we like coming up here. If they run badly you don't have too long to wallow in the journey home!”

McAuley specialises in buying well-bred cast-offs from bigger yards and said “we now have 19 or 20 extra horses and because you are buying other people's problems, it will take a while to sift through them.

“We bought 15 in Newmarket, five or six from claimers and they were all bought for the winter series at Dundalk."

Quotes from Michael Graham