McNamara marks 40-year anniversary with Limerick double Eric McNamara bridged a 40-year gap between Limerick Christmas Festivals wins today as the Rathkeale-trainer completed a double at his local course, with Dream In The Park (7/2jf) in the BRC McMahon Reinforcements Handicap Chase. Bought for £14,000 last May having won twice in the UK, the seven-year-old today reverted to chasing under jockey Calum Hogan and having had his task simplified by challenging Thelonglad’s fall at the second-last, scored comfortably from Birdsandthebees. McNamara, earlier successful with Millstream Lady, quipped “forty years ago today, I trained my first winner with For Jon, with Michael Byrne riding him. It was at the old Greenpark racecourse so there have been a lot of changes since but we’re still at it and haven’t gone hungry yet!” He added “Dream In The Park jumps well and was handicapped better over fences than over hurdles, so we decided to have a go at this. We schooled him at home the other day and jumped particularly well. “That’s Calum’s first winner over fences and his 7lb claim is very valuable: he gave him a great ride. Conor (McNamara, son) had the pick but went for (stablemate) Cahirdown Boy who has been lucky for him in the past, but he made an early bad mistake, so his race was gone.”
