John O'Riordan
Well bred mare Keeps Up Mullins excellent bumper record
Keep Up and Patrick Mullins
© Photo Healy Racing
Willie Mullins won the concluding bumper on the card for the third year in succession when Keep Up belied a market drift to take the Brian Keenan On-Course Bookmaker INH Flat Race at Roscommon.
Drifting from 2/1 to twice those odds, as the money arrived for Jerry From Kerry (4/1-4/6f), the market got it wrong as the former proved far too strong for the latter inside the final furlong.
Making ground around the outside of runners to lead early in the straight, Keep Up was challenged and briefly headed by Jerry From Kerry over two furlongs out but found plenty inside the final furlong to go away to win by five-and-a-half-lengths.
Patrick Mullins: “That was a nice surprise as we didn’t think she would be forward enough to do that.
“She was very green before the race and early in the race but she learned as she went.
“She has a nice pedigree and we think there is plenty of improvement in her.
“The second horse was well fancied and the 1lb overweight didn’t make an difference!”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee.