Chateau Musar and Chris Hayes (left) pip Quite Desire (right) and Scherbatsky (green) © Photo Healy Racing
The Find Us On Facebook @Dundalk Stadium Handicap (Div I) looked like it had produced a huge-priced double for trainer Pat Martin (after Indiana Grey rsquo;s 25/1 win earlier), but the photo-finish revealed that his Quiet Desire (66/1) had been beaten a flared nostril by Chateau Musar (5s into 10/3 before the off).
Chris Hayes came from well back on the gelding by Frankel’s half-brother Morpheus to get up on the line, with between the first two home Scherbatsky (18/1) only a head further back in third.
The winning 3-year-old had been cut a bit of slack by the handicapper, having been dropped from 67 to today’s mark of 49 over the course of five handicap runs since August.
Although never before in the money, he’d not been beaten that far in his three previous runs on the polytrack.
Winning owner-trainer John Geoghegan said: “He's a very cowardly horse and it's taken a long time to teach him how to do things right.
“Every run he's getting better. Chris said everything went wrong for him there, he got bumped, so he did well to win from where he did.
“He's lowly rated so hopefully there will be another one in him, that should crown him and he should improve.
“He loves that surface so we'll keep him on the go, although we won't overdo it.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
