Finke an 11th winner of the year for McAuley at Dundalk

The second divide of the Christmas Party Nights At Dundalk Stadium went the way of the James McAuley-trained Finke River

Third on his penultimate start at Bellewstown, the son of Australia came in for good market support this afternoon, going off a 4/1 chance from early shows of 7s.

Out of a dual Listed winner in Italy and a half-brother to a Group 3 winner in Japan, he raced mainly in third under Shane Foley, coming through to lead over a furlong from home.

Soon ridden, he stretched clear in the closing stages and went on to score by two-and-a-half lengths from Delta Romeo (28/1 from 40s) and Niall McCullagh in second.

Slow into stride, Double Martini (14/1) done very well to finish a neck back in third, while Inishmot Prince (7/4f) could only manage a disappointing fourth.

"His last run was maybe one too many for an inexperienced horse, but he needed each of those runs to teach him a bit," McAuley, who was recording his 11th winner of the year at Dundalk, said.

"He has always worked well at home, but mentally he has been a bit slow. He's a good, hardy lad. When we got him, he was mentally slow. I'd say the racing has helped him because the ability was always there. We never doubted that with him.

"It has been a great season and our best season.

"We just had to dust ourselves down (after losing horses who broke loose from a field in May). We went shopping again last week and got 13 in Newmarket and two in Goffs yesterday and one out of the claimer today.

"If we found a claimer with staff in it, we'd start claiming staff!"

Additional reporting by Michael Graham