Ravished grabs Midlands National glory Paul Townend made the most of a spare ride on 7/2 favourite Ravished when galloping to a clear-cut victory in the Midlands National at Kilbeggan. Bryan Cooper, the retained Gigginstown rider, had gone to hospital for an X-ray on a suspected dislocated thumb sustained in an earlier fall. Ravished travelled powerfully for Townend and came through to chase fellow Gigginstown runner Akorakor on the run to the last. At this stage Gigginstown looked set for a 1-2-3 as Balnaslow raced in third. The complexion of the race changed at that fence though, as Akorakor was hard ridden on the approach to it by Kevin Sexton and blundered to unseat the jockey. Ravished was left clear and Townend drove him home by four and three quarter lengths from the staying on Rohan's Pride (8/1). Archie Meade at 9/1 got up to deprive Balnaslow of third. Paul Townend said: "It's never nice to get a ride that way but hopefully Bryan's alright and thankfully I was able to fill in. The plan was to be handy away. We went a good gallop and I just let him warm his way into it. "To be honest he jumped his way into it. He was foot perfect everywhere and I got a great ride off him. Jumping is the name of the game. He's going the right way. Maybe the Galway Plate next but today was the day for me anyway." Trainer Mouse Morris said: "He stays all day and is improving the whole time. It's nice to win this for Michael (O'Leary) at his local track. I'll have a word with the boss now and see where he goes." Michael O'Leary was in attendance despite a broken shoulder and said: "I'm going to give up race sponsorship because I can never win my own races! JP usually wins all the Ryanair races! "We love supporting Kilbeggan. The Midlands National is the highlight of the racing summer season here. It's a great pleasure to win it for a second time. This was a very good training performance by Mouse. "Ravished jumped very well. I'm not sure he would have beaten Akorakor but they are both decent horses. They are summer horses. Most of them will finish up in the sales in September and make way for the proper horses coming back in in October." Additional reporting by Gary Carson
