GREAT WHITE SHARK (grey horse, extreme right) stayed on best to win the Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) handicap© Photo Healy Racing
Willie Mullins landed the big amateur handicap on the opening evening of the Galway Festival, the Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap, for the the third year running when Great White Shark overcame a wide trip to score under Jody Townend.
In a race run at a moderate gallop, plenty met trouble in running but the winner( 16s into 8s on course, 25s in morning betting) circled the field coming out of the dip and had enough in reserve to win by a length and three quarters. Dalton Highway (20/1) was second, with Litterale Ci (20/1) another three quarters of a length back in third. The 9/4 favourite, Mr Adjudicator stable companion of the winner, got going late in the day for a never-nearer fourth.
A five-year-old grey daughter of Le Havre, the winner won twice on the level for James Fanshawe in 2017 and had won twice over hurdles earlier this year for her present handler. She had been freshened up since a below-par run when a beaten odds-on favourite on the Flat at Down Royal in May.
It was a notable victory for the winning rider, younger sister of Irish NH champion Paul Townend. Jody Townend explained “I can’t believe it, what a buzz. It’s my first winner since I came back (from injury) so what a way to come back.
“I broke my T12 vertebrae and I had to get six screws and two rods put in. I was supposed to be back around February but it got infected and the infection got into my spine so all the metal had to be taken out. I was nine months on the sidelines.
“She can be quite free but wasn’t too bad today but I didn’t want to light her up and we were going a million. Willie said if I have to take it handy then take it handy.
"Coming into the dip we went for a gap and nearly got murdered. So I said we’ll go the wide route, and once she got rolling up the hill there was no stopping her.
“I’m with Willie from Monday to Thursday, and Ruby and Paul help me out whenever they can.
“I knew she had a fair chance as she had been working well at home.”
Winning trainer Willie Mullins said , “Fantastic for Jody. I think it was her first ride in the race.
"Some guys wait all their lives and never ride the winner of it, but Jody looked like an old hand, coming from off the pace.
"I just said to her ‘see how you break. If you don’t break well, wait and wait and come wide, and keep out of trouble’. And that’s what she did.
"Once the mare started to pass one or two horses, she found that she was liking it, and the two of them just took off. Jody said she couldn’t believe how well she was travelling in the dip and once she passed one or two the mare just took off.
“I had this race in mind for her all along. She’d had a hurdle career and I thought this mare might improve on the flat.
"I said to Malcolm Denmark (owner) 'we’ll go to Galway, there’s a nice race there'.
"But as things turned out, I think she would have been the outsider of our ones, but with Jody’s 7lb claim and her first run back on the flat after her little break I thought anything could happen.
“That race is a bit like the Grand National. Look at our other horse, Mr Adjudicator, he got no breaks whatsoever. He had a slow break, got caught on the rails, never got out, and was a fast-finishing fourth.
“Royal Illusion probably ran a bit too free at the start and Legal Spin didn’t look like he came up the hill.
“I was hoping Jody would take out a flat licence, but she seemed determined to go point to pointing, but we’ll see now.
“After watching herself on video on that race she might change her mind. I like her — I think she would be a good rider on the flat.”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
