Jungle Jungle and Seamus Heffernan (noseband) come through to beat Han Solo (red)© Photo Healy Racing
The Bet 10 Get 20 With MansionBet Handicap (Div I) was won by Jungle Jungle (16/1) who got up close home to deny Han Solo (9/2) by half a length after that one had travelled well to lead over a furlong out.
The winner had been going well himself, tucked away on the rail tracking the front-running 7/2 favourite Hidden Spark and the eventual runner-up before angling out for a run coming to the furlong pole.
Seamie Heffernan (a double after Laburnum in the feature) timed it well and he pushed out the 4-year-old Bungle Inthejungle gelding to gain a first career victory a shade snugly. Blankiedoodie (8/1) was third with the favourite finishing fourth in the end.
Now with his fourth trainer, the winner had gone very close when beaten a short head at Limerick last summer.
Winning trainer Tony Martin said: “He reared up the last day and whatever chance he had he lost it at the gate. It was just one of those things and he’d never done it before as far as I know.
“He was a bit agitated when we put him through stalls last week but touch wood he didn’t rear.
“That’s just his third run for us. I doubt he’d go over hurdles as I’d say that’s as far as he’d want to go. He’s a bit keen.
“Hurdles might help him in his head and he’s big enough. It’s an option but not something we have really thought about and we were just trying to get a race on the Flat.”
Seamie Heffernan, just back from a 22 day suspension for improper use of the whip imposed by the stewards at Chantilly after his ride on Order Of Australiain the Prix du Jockey Club, was given a four day ban for careless riding for the manoeuvre he made on board the winner when switching out for a run. The third home Blankiedoodie appeared to get a slight bump and there was a concertina effect towards that one’s outer. The placings remained unaltered.
An unhappy Heffernan made his feelings known in a subsequent television interview.
“They (the stewards) gave me four days for trying. Now maybe I pushed it to the line but we’re riding horses, we don’t have lines to race on.
"Sometimes you have to push it to the line, but not over. I believe I didn’t go over the line, and I believe if I stayed following (the leaders) sitting on the bridle I should have been brought in for not trying.
"It’s a very tricky situation we’re going through at the moment. Some people are talking and some people are good talkers, they get people to listen, but unless you’re out there on the track, (making) split-second decisions, (where) you know what’s happening , you know what’s going to happen.
"Some of these people are passing remarks and they’ve never ridden in races.
"The only other option I had, and I was doing my best for the trainer, the owner, was to make that little manoeuvre. There was nothing bizarre about it and I ended up winning. The only other option I had was to finish on the bridle and to have people looking (and saying) 'what’s racing all about, he never tried'.
"I did cause (bare minimal) interference. I want to put it out there and I want people to watch this video and watch the head-on, and I want them to see my point. Should I have stayed in there and finished on the bridle, or should I have just went close to the line (regarding interference) and the best horse wins?
"What I don’t want people to be doing is looking at racing saying, 'look at how crooked racing is, he didn’t try'.
"Sometimes you have to push it right to the boat. We’re all trying to get money, we’re all trying to keep owners in racing, but with the publicity they’re drawing corruption into racing by saying you can’t come off a straight line because there’s jockeys just going to sit and finish like that (on the bridle).
"It’s tricky. These people that are talking so much about it, if we’re trying to get people into racing, it’s all part of the tightness, what might have happened, what should have happened. Nobody wants to be dangerous.
"It’s not win at all costs but it’s win if you can. I never win at all costs, that’s not my style."
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
