Maxwell caps notable day with dramatic Wexford win

There was early farce in Wexford's Eoin O'Gorman Solicitors Handicap Chase today as 7/2 favourite Aodhan May was left at the start in an incident caused by a reluctant horse, behind eventual winner Ocean Legacy (22/1).

There were two false starts prior to the third attempt where Definetly Darsi ducked from the tape, refused to race and unseated his rider.

That manoeuvre badly inconvenienced the Charles Byrnes-trained favourite Aodhan May, causing him to whip around, and was pulling up after jumping one fence. Battle Of Benburb was also caught up in the incident but completed in ninth, finishing one place ahead of front-running Capture The Drama

Ocean Legacy avoided the trouble, raced prominently and beat runner-up So Ladylike by a length and a half.

Ocean Legacy's dam Ocean Bright provided today's successful trainer Dermot McLoughlin with his first win in 2010, while today was also notable for winning jockey Conor Maxwell.

Maxwell, whose biggest success was in the 2020 Leopardstown Chase, runs a pre-training yard and earlier today had his first runner as a trainer with unplaced Itsabeautifulnoise

Following Ocean Legacy's win he said “she is not quickest in the world but stays galloping.

“I thought the drop back in trip to2m4f would suit because they'd go quick. I got a great start, she jumped super and her jumping got even better as we went along.”

He added “after the last day David (Eiffe, owner) said to put her away for nicer ground around St Patrick's Day time, as she wasn't getting away from the back of her fences on softer ground.

“Today she winged fences, landed galloping and stuck it out really well. She wants nice ground and over the summer hopefully she'll win more races."

Quotes from Donal Murphy