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Gary Carson

Gary Carson

Townend and Mullins double up with Five

Thu 30th Jan 2020, 15:39

Five O'clock and Paul Townend Five O'clock and Paul Townend
© Photo Healy Racing

Paul Townend had to be strong again to notch a double on Five O'clock in the two-mile maiden hurdle at Limerick.

Willie Mullins' charge had been turned over at a short price on his Irish debut at Tramore and was again sent to post odds-on, at 4/7.

Townend tracked the leaders before sending his mount up to dispute on the home-bend. Like earlier, on Lamarckise he swung wide turning for home and had a narrow lead over the second last. Email Rose refused to go down without a fight, however, and there was nothing between the pair over the last where Five O'clock didn't get high.

The French import found plenty on the run-in though to gain a hard fought length success.

Mullins admitted:- "He made hard work of that but I think the race was a half mile or mile too short for him as he is an out and out stayer.

"The ground is really testing which I think he'll handle but with the trip we took a chance on running him because there wasn't a suitable race coming up.

"I know he has entries across (in Cheltenham) but we'll see what happens. We might see what handicap mark he gets because I asked Paul (Townend) what the second horse (Email Rose, rated 113) was rated so we might go down that route."

(Quotes by Tom Weekes)

About Gary Carson
Gary started out as a trainee/assistant journalist with the Sporting Life newspaper and has worked in the racing industry for over 25 years. He has been with the Press Association since 2013 and won the Irish Field Nap Table in 2016. He enjoys working with horses and trained his own horse, Mamaslittlestar, to win a point-to-point in 2019.