Report | Bandon 07th March 2020

Darragh Allen was the only rider to partner a two-timer at this rescheduled meeting and he opened his account aboard the Padraig Butler-trained Cailin Dearg in the Bandon Motors & Bandon Co-Op five-year-old and upwards adjacent maiden.

Cailin Dearg, runner-up behind recent Warwick bumper winner Nada To Prada on her penultimate effort at Ballindenisk in January, made all the running and the sweet-jumping five-year-old ultimately beat newcomer Blustery by five lengths.

Two-horse handler Butler incidentally also won this same race 12 months earlier with subsequent British track winning mare Delight Of Dubai, likewise ridden by Allen.

“She has been working very well at home and we could now go for the GAIN Mares’ Final with her,” said the Timoleague-based operator Butler of his brother John Joe’s Cailin Dearg.

Darragh Allen brought up his two-timer by combining with handler/breeder Damian Murphy to collect the Springmount Stud & AIB Bank six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden with My Mind Reader.

Having pulled up on his previous two starts, My Mind Reader arrived full of running to lead before the last and deny the only other finisher, First Touch, by three parts of a length.

“It’s great that he has won and he ideally wants good ground,” said Murphy of his wife Jane Foley’s My Mind Reader.

Johnny Barry made his only mount at the fixture a winning one, before he travelled to Gowran Park to partner Macs Legend to finish third in the Tetretema Cup, by teaming up with Mikey Kennedy to collect the Tattersalls Ireland five-year-old geldings’ maiden aboard Salt Wind.

Runner-up on his debut at Knockanard almost three weeks earlier, the patiently ridden Salt Wind improved to lead from two out, except that he was overtaken by the Pierce Power-trained newcomer Bali Body approaching the final fence.

Bali Body however blundered here as the winning son of Getaway, a close relation to Oscar Delta, made his way back to the front once more to dismiss Pierce Power’s charge by two lengths in the colours of owner/breeder Karen O’Driscoll.

“He’s a horse that we’ve always thought a lot of and we’ll look for a winners’ race now,” said handler Kennedy, who trains in nearby Innishannon.

Drawn N Drank has been a terrific servant to connections and Eugene O’Sullivan’s 14-year-old, a former Joseph O’Reilly Memorial hunters chase winner, rolled back the years by providing 23-year-old Listowel native, John Mulvihill, with an initial points success in the Barryroe Co-Op & Chris McCarthy Greenbuild Ltd open for novice riders.

Drank N Drawn was always in a prominent posse and he took up the running after two out, then bravely keeping the patiently-ridden Three Wise Men at bay by four lengths.

Fergus O’Connor, whose wife Irene Walsh owns Drawn N Drank, said: “This place suited him and we will look for another tough track for him now.”

Niall Kelleher sent out Peggy Gordon to win the Glenview.ie five-year-old and upwards mares’ maiden under Shane Baragry, who was enjoying his 19th career success.

Peggy Gordon went one better than she did on her previous two starts at Dungarvan and Cragmore, finally getting off the mark as she led from four out to eclipse the only other finisher Haondotri by one length.

“There’s a winners’ race in Durrow that she could go for, or she could also run in the GAIN Mares’ Final,” said Kelleher of Peggy Gordon, owned by Gerard Nihill from Tulla in Co Clare.

The David Murphy-trained Etoile Du Matin supplemented his Ballyvodock maiden success last month by landing the Kevin O’Leary & McLaughlins Medical Hall, Bandon winner-of-one under Ray Barron. The seven-year-old forged past long-time leader Keep Stormin’ before the last to score by three lengths.

Murphy’s father Jeff, who also owns Etoile Du Matin, explained that the son of Millenary holds a preference for better ground.