Racing returned to Thurles following the shock news that it was set to close for good and the track, temporarily under the management of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), looked well as it hosted a seven-race Flat programme.<\/p>\n
For the on-course action, it was business as usual as Joseph O\u2019Brien and Dylan Browne McMonagle were amongst the winners once again, as were Willie Mullins, Dermot Weld, and Andy Slattery.<\/p>\n
Joseph O\u2019Brien saddled four of the nine runners in the opener, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies\u2019 Maiden, and it was the market\u2019s most fancied of the quarter, Green Carrera, who came out on top to give the trainer his seventh winner of the month to date.<\/p>\n
Carrying the colours of Isaac Souede and Simon Munir, the filly had a real buckle with market leader Cape Primrose, and she found that bit extra to give Dylan Browne McMonagle another important winner in his jockeys\u2019 championship quest.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe shaped well first time,\u201d said stable representative Kevin Blake. \u201cYou always hope they\u2019ll come forward, and she stepped forward really well and battled hard. The double green has had a great year with Joseph, and this is another one, so it\u2019s great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a word for the winning rider, Blake added: \u201cHe\u2019s motoring, and he\u2019s just got to keep the revs up, keep doing what he\u2019s doing. Colin\u2019s not going to lie down, we know that, but Dylan is working really hard and riding very well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That extension of his lead at the top of the jockeys\u2019 table lasted just a couple of hours until champion and nearest pursuer Colin Keane, teaming up with Willie Mullins, took the Horse & Jockey Maiden with Sorrentino. Patiently ridden, the easy-to-back 7-4 chance moved up rapidly on the turn for home and quickly asserted to put eight and a half lengths between himself and well-backed favourite Dream On Baby.<\/p>\n
Dermot Weld, Chris Hayes,\u00a0 and owners Moyglare Stud Farm combined to take the Killinan Handicap with the always talented but previously frustrating Truth Be Told. This well-deserved breakthrough required a patient and well-timed ride, and the race, with Angelo Pio and Lady Plimsoll going toe to toe from two out, allowed for that.<\/p>\n
After two fourth-placed finishes, one of which was in a listed race won by subsequent Group 1 winner Diamond Necklace, Eddie and Patrick Harty\u2019s Killashee Warrior made the most of the drop back to maiden company to get off the mark in the Irish EBF Auction Series Maiden.<\/p>\n
The grey Saxon Warrior filly travelled well and had matters in hand long before she hit the line in front, to give Jamie Powell his first winner since losing his claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see her walking away there, she\u2019s a three-year-old in the making, so she hasn\u2019t really had the gun put to her head this year,\u201d said Eddie Harty. \u201cShe had a lovely run first time out, and most of the owners were over from England so we decided to let her have a crack at the listed Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown at the Champions Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have been happy had she been fifth or sixth, but she flew and she has done what she should have done here today. I wouldn\u2019t say she\u2019d be in love with Thurles. It\u2019s not the ground \u2014\u00a0everything is lovely \u2014\u00a0but it\u2019s just a bit trappy. She\u2019s done it now, she\u2019s earned her break, and we\u2019ll see what next year brings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harty, whose juvenile Arugam Bay won a listed race earlier in the season and who sent out three-year-old Carla Ridge to win a listed race by 10 lengths last weekend at the Curragh, added: \u201cWe have a nice bunch at the moment, thank God. You could go years without having a nice two-year-old and now we have a couple of them. That\u2019s 10 winners on the Flat \u2014\u00a0one in Newmarket \u2014\u00a0and when you\u2019ve only got 20 of them, that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be happy if we could grow it a bit and hopefully with Patrick on board, we\u2019ll be able to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to keep Andy Slattery out of the winner\u2019s enclosure and stable and handicap debutant Queen Aethelflaed, formerly with the late Edward O\u2019Grady, added to the trainer\u2019s tally by taking the Boyle Sports Supporting Irish Racing Handicap under a well-judged ride by Joey Sheridan, who is also having the best season of his career to date.<\/p>\n
The lightly raced Tickling put a first win on her card by taking the Welcome Back To Thurles Handicap. Trained locally by Mark Molloy, the diminutive three-year-old settled nicely in midfield, moved up in the straight, and stayed on strongly to score under Killian Leonard.<\/p>\n
Harry Rogers has had a fine season and the versatile Grann\u2019s Boy, who was a winner over hurdles at the Listowel Harvest Festival, got up in the final strides to land the spoils under jockey Adam Caffrey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Racing returned to Thurles following the shock news that it was set to close for good and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-486281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115345561073600573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}