McGuinness lands another lucrative handicap

Ado McGuinness has enjoyed a fine season with his handicappers and, after Saltonstall’s win in the big mile handicap at the Galway Festival (also for winning owners Dooley Thoroughbreds), he hit the jackpot again when Current Option (11/2) landed a first prize of over 88,000 Euros in the concluding Irish Stallion Farms EBF ‘Sovereign Path’ Handicap.

Ronan Whelan went forward and raced handily from a wide draw on the ex-William Haggas inmate, and the lightly-raced three-year-old gelding by Camelot dug deep after hitting the front over a furlong out to fend off Black Magic Woman (20/1) by a neck. Ice Cold In Alex (15/2), not for the first time, didn’t have the clearest of passages as he stayed on to be third another neck away, and the 5/1 favourite Bopedro was fourth.

A winner at Thirsk in June on his final start in Britain, Current Option was runner-up on his first two starts for present connections, including a fine effort in last month’s Irish Cambridgeshire.

“He was unlucky not to win the Cambridgeshire. He's a good horse and I think he's a black-type horse in the making,” said the winning trainer McGuinness.

“We bought him at the Newmarket sales in July and he cost enough money. We castrated him after buying him and he's turned inside out since.

“He's in the Concorde Stakes at Tipperary. Whether we go there we'll have to see, he could be sold if we get enough.

“We had an offer for him after the Cambridgeshire so he might be sold.

“It's great for the lads again. It's his second big pot of the year and it's not easy to get one of them. That's the third premier handicap we've won this year so it's brilliant.

“Our yard sponsor Bart O'Sullivan is involved in him and he's ill at the minute so hopefully that gives him a lift.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson