Going - Hurdle/bumper: Soft Chase: Yielding. Overcast
Placepot Pool - 31,208.48 Dividend - 78.50 Winning Units - 270.98. Quadpot Pool - 3,624.46 Dividend - 13.80 Winning Units - 194.3. Days Aggregate - 139,872.00 Last Year 289,128.00
Kelly rides first winner on big day at Leopardstown
That was nice. I was a small bit worried when they took out the last fence as he's a great jumper,. That's Tom's first winner and I'm delighted for him. He's been working for us for the last year. He's well able to do the light weights so he'll get his chances. This horse will probably end up going down the cross country route as well. He jumped great, got a lovely ride and I'm delighted for Tom.
Mullins and Townend strike again with Stattler
Mullins and Townend complete brace as Concertista continues on the up
.She was very good,. It was a searching pace. We thought Mary Frances would go on but Rachael went ahead. That suited our other mare My Sister Sarah. Paul elected to drop in and I thought he might be a little too far out of it turning into the back straight. The pace up front got her back into the race. She was very brave and very good to do what she did there today. I'd imagine the Mares Hurdle is the target. She'd look nicely positioned for that race. We'll come back here first for the Dublin Racing Festival. She's improving all the time.
2nd run over fences and Monkfish takes Grade One honours
It was a very good performance from a horse having his second run over fences, to take on more experienced rivals at a Grade One track. I was very pleased with that,. It didn’t seem to be a problem — even when he was meeting one wrong, he shortened himself. He seems to be a natural over fences. There was a lot of pressure on him going to the last, with Latest Exhibition -who has a bit more experience than him. He pulled himself together, fought his way over it, and he just had a little bit in reserve. I’d imagine we’ll look at the Flogas Chase. We’ll focus on that first — and if all goes well we can look at Cheltenham after that.
Hat-trick for Sharjah in Leopardstown Grade One
He’s some horse and he likes this track. Patrick loves riding him, and the horse responds to him,. It can be very hard to ride a horse like that, the way he rides him, but he has great confidence in him. For a guy his size and weight, he has huge commitment. He does a lot of other work at home, running the yard as assistant trainer. He might be taking my job shortly!. I’d imagine Sharjah will come back here for the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival. He has a little bit of class about him. He was second last year in the Champion Hurdle, and might have been a little far back then. Saldier ran a great race on his comeback. I thought Saint Roi would finish closer — but Mark said he went for his race too early and he’d like to have sat longer.
Millen goes one better in novice handicap 12 months on
It was a nice way for him to open his account. He's been running cracking good races everywhere he's been,. We said today we'd wait for as long as we could. Maybe that was a help to him. He seems to have one bit of a run. There were days we weren't sure what way to go about trying to get that one run out of him. Today was better ground than we are getting anywhere else in the country and it was easier to drop him in and come with a challenge. Jack did a wonderful job. I told him beforehand if it didn't work he could blame me. You're not going to get many better than him. Jack said he'd get three ridden that way and we might look at some of the better three-mile handicap hurdles. It was all about today and trying to break his duck. I had hoped to win a hurdle in the spring last year and then go chasing this year but because of the Covid and everything that stopped us. Even before the end of this season he might be jumping fences.
Games completes cross card double for the Morans and Elliott