Course 'specialist' Muroor making up for past disqualification

Muroor has seemingly made peace with Downpatrick following a recent disqualification at the northern venue, as the Tom McCourt trained gelding landed his second official win at the track, in the Portman Dentalcare Handicap Hurdle today.

The five year old gelding's first visit on August 12 ended disastrously as, having passed the post first, was subsequently disqualified as his jockey Conor Maxwell weighed in 1.2lbs underweight, which is 0.2lbs over the threshold.

Connections failed to find the cause of the problem and the Stewards did not apportion blame, and since then Muroor has raced at the venue three times, winning twice.

Regular rider Conor Maxwell was on board today as the five year old gelding, now almost a course specialist, scored a two and a quarter lengths win over Just A Normal Day

Following today's win McCourt said "he loves it up here and Conor (Maxwell) has him down to a tee dropping him back and he loves just finding himself picking up to them again. He has plenty of ability.

"These type of tracks suit him; there's a race in Galway and that's the kind of track will suit him.

"He doesn't mind it soft but once the real winter horses come out he might just find it a bit hard. We'll put him away then for the spring and summer.

"It's unfortunate what happened that day (when he was disqualified) - we have still no idea where the weight went."

Quotes from Michael Graham