HRI Award winner Joyce gets the ball rolling for 2024

HRI Flat Achievement Award winner Wesley Joyce registered a first 2024 winner today, steering Moondharrig (5/1) to a hard-fought success in Dundalk's One Of The Only Dual Racetracks In Europe Handicap (Div II).

Out of Group 2 Debutante Stakes winner Campfire Glow, the four-year-old son of Fascinating Rock today raced in first-time blinkers, making almost all of the running to win.

Moondharrig fought off Lucky Question s (1/1f) brief challenge two furlongs out and while runner-up Don't Look Now threatened inside 'the last', the winner held on for an all-out head success.

Winning trainer Eoin Doyle wasn't present and Joyce reported “he jumped and was in my hands a little bit, so I was happy to let him travel away. He was game in the first-time blinkers and meant business today, although I thought I was chinned!

"He kept going, but I thought we were done on the line.

"He was good two runs back when Joey Sheridan rode him."

Jockey Joyce returned form life-threatening injuries last August, registering 13 winners before picking up December's HRI award.

Quotes from Michael Graham