Punches benefits from "lovely" O'Brien spin

Leading apprentice Ana O'Brien teamed up with trainer Tim Doyle to take split two of the Family Fun Day June 25th Apprentice Handicap at Gowran with Punches Pious

An eight-year-old son of Antonius Pius, Punches Pious showed mainly younger rivals how it's done in the testing ground, eventually accounting for Caridadi by no less than ten lengths.

"He ran well the last day and the extra rain was no harm," said Doyle.

"She gave him a lovely ride. He's been running well all year so it's great to get a win out of him. He pays his way every year.

"He was one from 35 before today and it's hard to win with him. Today was a good day for him. 

"We'll look for something similar now and a wet summer would suit. He's a nice fun horse."

The Stewards interviewed D.P. Linehan, rider of Storm Ranger concerning his use of the whip in the latter stages of this race. Evidence was heard from the rider concerned. Having viewed a recording of the race and considered the evidence the Stewards were of the opinion that D.P. Linehan was in breach of R10(3)(f) by using his whip with excessive frequency and R10(4) by failing to give his mount time to respond to the whip and having taken his previous record into consideration, suspended him for 2 racedays..

(GC & EM)