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Mark Nunan

Mark Nunan

Away To Milan strikes for Rothwell & Torrens

Wed 31st May 2023, 18:52

Away To Milan wings the last
Away To Milan wings the last
© Photo Healy Racing

The second divide of the BoyleSports Handicap Hurdle was won readily by the Philip Rothwell-trained Away to Milan.

Easy enough to back at 15/2, the son of Getaway had finished fourth at Tipperary earlier in the month and raced handily from flagfall under Simon Torrens. After improving to lead racing down the back straight on the final circuit, he was ridden to assert after the second-last and came home six lengths to the good over Be My Hero

Rothwell said: "I felt I was getting good at training horses to finish second! Coming down here tonight I thought this lad had a decent chance. He made two mistakes the last day and tonight looked like a lesser contest really.

"I'll probably give him a break now for a month as he is a big raw five-year-old. He won nicely and it's great to get a winner. I had a second in the last race and another one last night at Ballinrobe and you'd be wondering what you had done wrong. The horses are flying though, and that's my third winner of the season.

"The track have done an amazing job here. I was disappointed to hear some of my comrades not happy with over watering. I think you can't water enough and on a night when it's drying out you have to err on the side of caution. Everyone is putting in a lot of work at the moment to have it safe. All of ours have come home safe this season and I think that's wonderful, so long may it last.

"I'm delighted for John Leckey as well, he is a great owner and we've had a lot of luck together."

Quotes from Donal Murphy

About Mark Nunan
Mark has followed racing since he was a teenager and worked for many years as a broadcaster with the Irish version of Racecall. He joined the Press Association in 2019 and is also a contributor to the Racing Post. A native of Kildare, he now lives in Sligo.