Going - Good - Yielding. Fine and breezy
Jackpot Pool - 429.61 Not Won. Carried forward to Kilbeggan on Friday 22nd April. Placepot Pool - 21,174.30 Dividend - 32.40 Winning Units - 456.78. Days Aggregate - 111,051.14 (7 races). Last Year 88,939.00 (8 races).
How far the only issue for Faron
Mauritius shines for Harrington and Power
Back-to-back wins for Name Me Famous
The good ground has really brought out improvement in him. He's a lovely honest horse but he was just getting stuck in the winter ground. He'll keep going for now, we'll maybe freshen him up around July time and then go at the back-end again. It's unfortunate for his owner as he got caught up in work and he couldn't fly over from England. Hopefully he watched it and had a few quid on.
O'Grady strikes with Huntingtown
I'm delighted. Dermot O'Rourke was one of my first owners not long after I started training back in 1972. It's lovely to have him back as an owner in the yard,. He kindly bought this horse as a three-year-old. Today was his first handicap and I think the cheek-pieces made quite a big difference to him. It was probably a weak race. He's by Presenting and the better ground would suit him as well. I'll discuss things with the owner now and we'll see, he'll probably run again.
Fairytale first winner for Simon Condon
It's unbelievable. Simon is nearly 60 years of age and he rides out for me. I thought it was half mad that he was riding him in a hurdle race!. For the first two laps I was saying 'what is he doing' but maybe they just went too quick. We've liked this horse a lot and I was disappointed with how he was running up to here. He probably just needed to be upped in trip but he shows loads of pace at home. Hopefully he steps on from that. He's not a novice in a few weeks so we'll look at another handicap for him somewhere. He'll make a lovely chaser around the likes of these tracks. Simon didn't want to run him around a tight track and I've been trying to convince him for years that the horse wanted good ground.
Mullins newcomer wins mares' bumper
She was very green early on and at halfway I thought I was in trouble. The further we went the better she has gone,. Her pedigree should suggest stamina as well. It's a tricky track first time and she's not in as long as some of our other ones would be so there might be improvement in her. We'll see what Willie says, there are a couple of winners bumpers early next month but she could go jumping as well. It's a great start anyway.
Bumper double for the Mullins'
He was very babyish, very green. In the straight he was hanging out and then he hung for the last bit,. He was keen in patches and a bit like I was saying with the last mare there is probably improvement in him because he's probably running a bit sooner than we would normally run them. I think he'll improve again when the penny drops. I'd imagine he'll stay on the go as he looks like a summer horse, he's light framed. He'll jump a hurdle as well and probably fences in time.