Roconga (Andrew Lynch) in full flight at the last© Photo Healy Racing
Roconga continued the good recent run being enjoyed by trainer Edward O’Grady when landing the featured John J Galvin Handicap Hurdle at KJillarney.
The six-year-old gelding, previously successful in a bumper, maiden hurdle and a maiden at Dundalk, took this €34,000 event in fine style.
The well-supported 9/2 chance travelled strongly to head Yes Sir Brian at the penultimate flight, and was in command when pinging the final flight.
He galloped on strongly under Andrew Lynch to beat Runyon Rattler by five lengths, with Bitview Colin another three lengths away in third.
There was a sad postscript to the 2m1f Grade C race as Yes Sir Brian stopped quickly before the final flight, and subsequently died of a heart attack.
O’Grady was completing a very pleasing 24 hours as he sent out Le Vagabond to take the feature here yesterday evening, and was completing a double on the night after the earlier easy victory of Prickly
O’Grady said, “We fancied all three horses (that have won at Killarney) at Galway but nothing went right there. This is some compensation.
“He could go for a flat race next, and will mix it for a while. He’ll go chasing later, maybe next spring. He came back with a bad cut after running at Punchestown and missed a few months.”
