Blankiedoodie springs 40/1 surprise

Blankiedoodie sprang a 40/1 upset when gaining a belated first win at Gowran today as the John McConnell trained, Gary Carroll partnered gelding won the Think Print Handicap.

The six year old son of Halling's claim to fame coming into today's race was a second placing in an Ayr handicap back in July 2017 and was today reverting to the flat having had an unsuccessful spell hurdling.

Racing in a first-time tongue-tie today, Blankiedoodie disputed the lead with Lizard Point for much of the race before edging ahead with two furlongs to race. In the final furlong Blankiedoodie stayed going to score a length and a quarter success over his fellow pace-maker and runner-up Lizard Point.

Afterwards McConnell revealed “he had snippets of form that were okay and he was beaten one day in Ayr by a horse that went up about 25lb afterwards; he just had little issues.

“We sent him hurdling and he didn't enjoy that. I think he was delighted to see no hurdles and when he saw the stalls he went 'yahoo' and put his best foot forward!

“He's not a superstar but he definitely had the ability to win off that mark. I'm delighted to get it out of him because we kept him a long time believing he had it in him.

“We might go across to Ayr or something like that with him. Gary said he picked up plenty and he'll stay further.

“I think we might shelve hurdling anyway — that's the Champion Hurdle gone off the agenda anyway!”

Quotes from Gary Carson