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Gary Carson

Gary Carson

Opera Hat's son Woodland looks smart

Sun 25th Jan 2015, 16:49

Woodland Opera and Kate Harrington Woodland Opera and Kate Harrington
© Photo Healy Racing

Woodland Opera looked like he might be a chip off the old block as the son of top racemare Opera Hat made a winning debut in the concluding bumper at Leopardstown this afternoon.

Opera Hat proved a terrific mare for the late John Fowler, winning the Grade 1 Melling Chase at Aintree and proving somewhat of a course specialist at Naas where she landed the Grade 2 Newlands Chase three times.

She has failed to shine as a broodmare to date but Woodland Opera, by Robin Des Champs, certainly looks to have inherited some of his mother's ability.

Kate Harrington gave the 14/1 shot a positive ride as he kicked for home entering the straight.

He galloped on strongly in the closing stages to record a two-and-a-quarter length success over 5/6 favourite Fungi Mountain.

The winner is trained by Jessica Harrington, Fowler's sister, and said she afterwards:

"That's really great as John trained the mare, and in theory that's her last foal. I fancied him as he was working better than the horse (Jett) who was second last week.

"He's a chaser. He could go for a winners bumper but we may leave him off. He jumps brilliant. He's also owned by Valerie Cooper(owner/breeder)'s daughter Diana and Carolyn Waters, who was also involved with Opera Hat."

Reflecting back on Jezki she said: "He's not had a hard race and he's fine. He could have left the whole thing here and had a battle."

(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)

About Gary Carson
Gary started out as a trainee/assistant journalist with the Sporting Life newspaper and has worked in the racing industry for over 25 years. He has been with the Press Association since 2013 and won the Irish Field Nap Table in 2016. He enjoys working with horses and trained his own horse, Mamaslittlestar, to win a point-to-point in 2019.