Dreaper enjoys a rare flat success

Santo Romano carried out a sublime piece of mugging under Sean Corby to chin Keyboard Melody and So Sensible close home in Ballinrobe.

The latter two horses were duelling for the spoils in the home straight and could do nothing as Santo Romano flew home down the outside to win by half a length and a head at odds of 4/1. Keyboard Melody, the 11/4 favourite, had to settle for second with So Sensible (10/3) in third.

Jim Dreaper, a renowned jumps trainer, made it two winners in two days as Cerca Trova scored in Downpatrick yesterday. This, however, was a very rare flat winner for him.

Jim Dreaper said: I’ve had winners on the flat in the eighties and we won with chasers in flat races, but that was almost before decimal currency! She’s my first three-year-old winner. It’s very hard to win with them when you don’t run them!

“She ran well at Naas on her only previous run for us when the ground was on the quickish side for her. I thought on today’s ground she might struggle to get the trip, but she got it well in the end.”

Clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer said of the flat racing that took place on the new part of the track: “In general it is positive rather than negative. My sympathies are with the connections of Jercova [broke a leg], but it was unrelated to the new track and could have happened anywhere. They didn’t go hard in the first race and in a cleaner race there would have been less trouble in it.

“It was important to try today with a view to an all flat card next season. Obviously we’ll talk it over and see where we are after today.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes