Via Milan and Down, Italian trainer Natalia Lupini secured big race glory at Galway on Tuesday evening when course specialist Dunum landed the Colm Quinn BMW Mile.
Lupini, who first came to Ireland as a horse-mad teenager, now trains near Banbridge and secured the most valuable win of her career in dramatic fashion.
Twice a festival winner over seven furlongs, Dunum was bounced out by veteran jockey Seamus Heffernan and he was gallant in making to hold off Bear Profit’s late thrust by a head at 12/1.
For Heffernan, the 53-year-old multiple classic winner, it was a first success in Ballybrit’s €120,000 Day Two festival feature.
He was at his strongest to hold off the runner up’s 17-year-old rider Nicola Burns and perhaps at his driest in declaring afterwards “it was never in doubt.”
With decades behind him as Aidan O’Brien’s former Number 2 jockey, and global success topped by Anthony Van Dyck’s 2019 Epsom Derby, Heffernan’s certitude is clearly different level to most.
“He’s won twice at Galway and when you know a horse handles the track it’s a big plus,” said Heffernan, who made a point of saying he’s still loving the game.
Trainer Natalia Lupini and jockey Seamie Heffernan after winning the Colm Quinn BMW Mile at Ballybrit. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
So too it seems does Dunum, who was winning for the seventh time in his career and could be back in Ballybrit at the weekend for the Ahonnora Handicap he won in 2023 and was third in last year.
“We couldn’t dismiss Galway and have been working towards both this race and the Ahonoora on Sunday,” Lupini said.
“He did well today and Seamie is a great asset for a small yard like ours. Having a jockey of his calibre is a massive help.
“The horse usually jumps out smart, Seamie wasn’t going to give away his position and the horse enjoyed himself. He loves the downhill run into the dip and he battled well towards the line,” she added.
Having had her interest in horses ignited by watching the famous Palio di Siena – where horses are ridden bareback around Siena square – Lupini first came to Ireland as a student. She returned to Italy to complete her studies but was back in 2012 and started training in 2016.
Kildare-based trainer and trader Cormac Farrell is no stranger to a good result but seemed to particularly relish Sticktotheplan’s 22/1 success in the opening novice hurdle.
Farrell’s most profitable outcome this year was the €1.9 million paid to him by Godolphin for the subsequent winner Distant Storm at the Arqana Breeze Up Sales in May. The Irishman turned over a massive profit having picked up the colt as a yearling for just 90,000 guineas.
Farrell called it “the stuff of dreams”, but a Galway victory carried its own satisfaction.
“We fancied him and had a few quid on as we’ve always thought he was a very smart horse,” he said. “I tried to sell him on several occasions but nobody would buy him so I’m delighted, as I’ll be properly paid for him at some stage!”
2025 Galway Racing Festival, Ballybrit, Galway 29/7/2025
Jack Kennedy on King of Kingsfield on the way to winning the Beginners Steeplechase at Ballybrit. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
Class won out in the Beginners Chase as King Of Kingsfield proved too quick for his opposition. Faced with My Great Mate and the Galway hill in front of him, Jack Kennedy’s mount made light of both to win snugly.
“He had a couple of hard races last year leading the mare around which was probably a bit unfair to the horse having to do the donkey work,” Gordon Elliott said. “We’ll keep him to fences now. I don’t think he wants winter heavy ground but there are plenty of nice races to be won with him.”
Joe Murphy and Gary Carroll warmed up for a Nassau Stakes tilt with their Group One heroine Cercene at Goodwood on Thursday, when Pivotal Attack justified significant market support in the juvenile fillies maiden.
Pivotal Attack stepped up appreciably for her Fairyhouse debut and took advantage of the favourite Amelia Earhart appearing to momentarily shy from the whip just after the turn in.
“I don’t know where we’ll go next but the curve will be upwards anyway,” joked Murphy, who could have another very smart filly on his hands. “She is out of a Pivotal-mare and we think she is stakes class.”
In the caulfieldindustrial.com handicap, won by Summer Snow, apprentice jockey Dylan O’Connor finished third on Expound but picked up a 16-day suspension for his use of the whip, his fourth such penalty. He also picked up another day having breached the rules regarding marker poles after the start.
And there was rare festival dead-heat in the concluding handicap as Castleheath pounced in the final stride to match Heliogabalus.
Tuesday’s attendance of 13,306 was down slightly on last year’s 13,680.