Patrick Mullins, Henry de Bromhead and Robcour who were successful with their purchase Journey With Me in the Gowran Park point-to-point bumper, enjoyed further success in this sphere when Grand Jury ran out a ready winner of the five-year-old geldings point-to-point bumper.
Easy to back before the off, the French-bred who had won his four-year-old maiden for Pat Doyle at Turtulla in the autumn was given a confident ride by Mullins in what was one of the more strongly run races on the afternoon.
The well-supported Jalkadam was sent for home rounding the home bend and he quickly opened up an advantage of a couple of lengths heading into the final quarter-mile, but having been kept wide by Mullins Grand Jury quickly reeled the leader back in and the 5/4 favourite readily asserted inside the final furlong, pulling further and further clear in the closing stages.
Fameaftertheglory, a Mainstown winner for Donnchadh Doyle, came through to take the second spot on his debut for the Gavin Cromwell team having been purchased for £100,000 after his maiden success, with Jalkadam back in third.
“He was quite hot in the parade ring and he was keen going down to the start so I ended up dropping him in a bit further back then I had planned but by the time we came by the stands here he had dropped it completely and was very relaxed," said the winning rider with trainer Henry de Bromhead absent having made the trip to Cheltenham.
“Then coming across the side on the way to the home bend he was still asleep and I was kind of wondering do I have much under me, but I gave him a squeeze and then suddenly I was in front.
“Once I have him a squeeze he woke up and made up five lengths in five strides and he ended up in front too soon and has idled and I have ended up having to hit him a few smacks so it probably wasn’t one of my best rides but he is a horse with a big engine definitely.”
“He is a beautiful horse, definitely the standout of the ring, I would say the gears that he showed there when I gave him a squeeze, he has plenty of gears. He will definitely jumps a fence, he has won his point-to-point obviously, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a typical two-mile chaser of Henry’s.”
