Keane bookends Champions Festival on a late-declaration Trainer Emmet Mullins' late decision to run This Songisforyou (9/1) at the Curragh paid dividends today, as champion jockey Colin Keane bookended the Champions Festival in winning the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Northfields Handicap on the gelding. Keane won the opening races on both Leopardstown's and today's Curragh fixture for his employer Ger Lyons and on This Songisforyou, produced the six-year-old from rear-division to eventually defeat Indigo Five. Mullins revealed “I thought he might need the run as he thrived so well since Galway so didn't fill Michael (Mee, owner) with much confidence. It was a last minute declaration but thankfully it's all worked out as it's a great pot to get. He's a been a great horse and is very versatile.” He added “it was a very good ride but I probably didn't fill him with confidence either! I told him he might need the run and to ride him to run well, but he was ultra cool. “He's still in the English Cambridgeshire in two weeks' time and if it turned up nice ground, he might go. He is ground dependent and likes to rattle off nice ground.” Quotes from Gary Carson
