River reels in front-runner after ragged start

The leader ran the other day against a horse of ours in Down Royal so we felt we would sit in behind him and see how we go. It was a king of a raggedy start I thought and anyway it worked out for us in the end. I suppose the other horse tired. He did (relish the better ground) and Barry gave him a very timed ride. He looked to have a lot to do but I thought the leader was going very quick after running during the week. He felt he would reel him in but you have to go and do it. He will probably head to Punchestown (for the final). I think he is improving a bit and the ground helped him. He has a real good page this lad. He was a little bit hard to handle early on and if you saw him three months ago, you'd say there was no handling him. He's come a long way

Coltor back to winning ways for Weld

Flame burns bright for McConnell

I love this place. Both Downpatrick and Down Royal are so well supported, it is great to come racing to both tracks. He ran a lovely race in a better race the last day. Better ground probably suited him and he is one for the future. He is still learning, he is a big baby and took a long time to mature even though he had won his point-to-point. Hopefully there is more good days in him. We'll keep him on the go for a little while. He enjoyed the ground and relished the hill. He's a nice horse for the future.

McDonagh caps great week with Ulster National win

Aoife springs 50/1 shock for Keane

They went hard in front and it probably suited her. She has been very disappointing, it was probably the ground the last day in the hurdle race. She ran a nice race in Thurles and we were hoping for a nice run in Navan. When we have run her left-handed, she just hasn't run well and she normally hangs the opposite way so you'd think it would suit her. Tracks like this suit her better. She is going to be covered now and after that we will race on for as long as we can. We'll hopefully come back here. We tried the blinkers the last day and tried the cheekpieces today to see if it would make a difference. She jumped great, she has ability and she's a good family. She won her point-to-point first-time out and lost her way a bit and we got her back and she won a hurdle. She has lost her way again and has come back. We hope being covered might sweeten her up as she is well enough handicapped.

Pick pips Headon in thrilling finish

Mac makes all for impressive bumper win

His work has been good, really smart actually, and the biggest problem, we thought, was would he switch off,. Brian (Laird) and his family have pre-trained him and done a serious job because he hasn't been simple, he's very free. He did a couple of bits of work recently and we just wanted to get him here in one piece, thank God everything worked out. We travelled him up last night and he stayed in Brian's. We actually brought him racing earlier today, to get the microchip done, and then he went back to Brian's for an hour. He never turned a hair. Deccy gave him a serious ride, he was very good on him. I met Dusty Sheehy yesterday, we both had trained (Grade 2 winner) Kahuna and I told him he was as good as him but he had to learn how to breathe and run his race. Declan was brilliant on him. I have thank Brian and the family for supporting me. I gave up my licence a couple years ago after a few things and lost my brother earlier this year. It's been hard but this makes it all worthwhile. This is a good horse. Everything is for sale but today was the plan as Brian and his family are just five miles up the road.