Inflection Point and Bill Lee© Photo Healy Racing
James McAuley has dominated claimer races at Dundalk over the past few years and he landed another prize when Inflection Point justified good support in the Irishinjuredjockeys.com Claiming Race.
However the 7/2 shot, available at 8/1 overnight, only held on by the slimmest of margins under Bill Lee as Prince Of Abington outran odds of 40/1 storming home on the outer to be denied by just a nose.
The performance of the runner-up was all the more remarkable as rider Jessica O’Gorman was unseated at the start and the five-year-old ran loose. Hypernova was a length and a quarter back in third, with the winner’s stablemate Tai Sing Yeh setting the pace before weakening back to fourth inside the final furlong.
The Naul trainer was getting a quick return having claimed Inflection Point for 15,000 out of John McConnell's yard just seven days ago.
McAuley said, "To be honest, I actually thought that he might have been able to beat Tai (Sing Yeh) last week so if you are wary of them beating you, you might as well take them! John had him fit last week and he only rode out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We don't know much about him.
"I'd say probably going good and hard in front, with Tai and that, probably helped him.
"No (probably wouldn't want to lose him), but I've had worse weeks - six grand in a week. Nobody went for him last week, if someone wants to go for him this week so be it.
"He looked a little bit like me, he looked a little bit ungenuine up the straight! If someone wants to roll the dice, it has been a good week.
"There are more races to be won with Tai Sing Yeh, we've been busy with him and it's probably telling now. We tend to know when they cry enough and they get a couple of weeks off so we won't panic about him."
Two horses were claimed both out of Denis Hogan's yard. James McAuley snapped up Tawaazon for 15,000 and John McConnell secured Bronze River for 4,000.
Quotes by Michael Graham
