AUTUMN 19: Colin Bowe boosted by 10 four-year-old winners

A total of 13 winners throughout the autumn season leaves Colin Bowe as the man to be caught throughout the spring.

In all, his Milestone Stables sent out 58 runners in the ten-week autumn term from October 5th to December 8th, with his Loughanmore victor, Fiston Des Issards, chief amongst his ten four-year-old maiden winners.

The French-bred son of Buck’s Boum getting the better of Boothill by three lengths before being sold to Gordon Elliott and Mouse O’Ryan for £255,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale.

He was one of ten winners in the four-year-old division for Bowe this autumn, and that success has rolled right through the pre-Christmas campaign, ensuring that he has more than doubled his autumn tally of six winners from 12 months ago, when he entered the spring season with just six winners to his name. By the season’s end, he had enjoyed his best year to date when claiming his seventh handlers title.

Undoubtedly buoyed by this strong autumn, he will have high hopes of bettering his 2019 total.

Denis Murphy (9): The Ballyboy Stables handler sent out one of his biggest autumn teams to date, with no fewer than 23 individual horses running a total of 37 times for him throughout October, November and December.

Whilst he ends that term with a total of nine wins to his name, just two of them were recorded in the four-year-old maiden division that he is so closely associated with, Gale At Sea winning the opening race of the season at Toomebridge, whilst Corran Cross returned victorious at Tinahely in November.

The majority of his other winners coming in the five-year-old age group, courtesy of horses such as Beatthebullet and Honest Exchange, the latter of which went on to double his tally with a second success around Tinahely.

With the stable bang in form right throughout the autumn they could well consider themselves unlucky to have won nine races, as they had a further nine second’s and six thirds, ensuring 24 of their 37 runners finished in the first three placings.

Sean Doyle (8): The eight winners that Sean Doyle has sent out this autumn has already surpassed his total of the entire of last season when he sent out five winners throughout the 2018-19 campaign.

The rise through the ranks of My Story has been a big part in that strong start to the season with the seven-year-old, who had previously won his four-year-old maiden at Dromahane for brother Donnchadh, has excelled since returning to Wexford following an unsuccessful spell with Neil Mulholland and Tom George.

This has seen him rise from success in a winner-of-one at Loughrea in October, to further victories at Loughanmore and Knockmullen House, the latter of which came on his first step into open company.

Doyle’s other successes this autumn have come courtesy of five-year-old’s, with What About Time winning at Borris House last week the latest of them following on from the likes of The Forge Hill and Shoot To Farme.

Ellen Doyle (7): Whilst Colin Bowe has sent out no fewer than 58 runners, and Denis Murphy and Sean Doyle each responsible for 37 runners each this autumn, Ellen Doyle has saddled just 15, with her seven winners leaving her with a standout strike rate of 47%.

Twelve months ago, a successful autumn for the Coolgarrow-based handler saw her win four races, a figure that was surpassed with an across the card treble on the final day of the pre-Christmas season, with four-year-old’s, Askthebosslady and Do The Floss, successful at Borris House, whilst Crossing Lines won his second race of the season at Tattersalls Farm on the same afternoon.

In all, Doyle who operates Baltimore Stables alongside her brother James, won four four-year-old maidens, following the successes of Fuego De L’Abbaye at Dowth Hall and French Light at Boulta earlier in the campaign.

These four-year-old maiden victories were supplemented by successes in the five-year-old division, older maidens and winners’ company, with a further three second-placed efforts adding to that impressive strike rate.

David Christie (7): Widely regarded as one of the most successful operators in the open lightweight division, David Christie’s autumn season ended as successfully as it began, when he saddled three of the first four horses home in the 17-runner open for novice riders at Borris House, with Eddies Miracle getting the better of stable companion Horendus Hulabaloo by a neck.

That was his seventh success of the autumn campaign, one that could scarcely have started better for the Fermanagh handler, with his first four runners all making it into the winner’s enclosure at Toomebridge, Castletown-Geoghegan and a double at Portrush.

That was the first of two doubles for Christie this autumn, as Dylrow and On The Sod, provided him with a second double at Kirkistown in November when both winning on their first outings for him.

Having only sent out 16 runners across the ten week autumn campaign, it has left him with a notable 44% strike rate.