Image © Healy Racing
The remarkable winning run of Winged Leader continued at Saturday’s rescheduled fixture in Tinahely as the 11-year-old claimed his 15th successive victory.
The remarkable winning run of Winged Leader continued at Saturday’s rescheduled fixture in Tinahely as the 11-year-old claimed his 15th successive victory.
Trained by David Christie, the Winged Love gelding has not met with defeat since winning an open at Farmacaffley in mid-February 2024, and his winning run has taken him around the country, with victories at courses as far apart as Quakerstown in the Burren of Co. Clare, to Portrush on the north coast, the home venue of his owners John Hegarty and Jennifer O’Kane.
Making a first appearance at Tinahely, Winged Leader faced a new rival in the shape of Between Waters in the Shillelagh & District Hunt open.
Four years his junior, she had made a winning return to life back under the care of Sean Doyle at the same venue in November, and on her first start in open company, she was made much of the running under Jamie Scallan, with the five runners nicely spread out.
It was the seven-year-old on just her eighth career start that still held the call entering into the home straight as Between Waters and Winged Leader were the two that pulled clear.
Coming to the penultimate fence, Between Waters had the reigning champion point-to-pointer under pressure, as Scallan looked over his left shoulder to see how much of a gap he had built up.
However that gap was steadily eroded on the climb to the final fence, and although still holding the advantage taking off, she made a mistake appearing to be tiring slightly at the time, and Winged Leader took full advantage, galloping three lengths clear by the line on the short run-in.
The win was Barry O’Neill’s 20th time to partner him to success, but the winning Fermanagh-based handler was pleased to see him come through the test after a far-from-ideal preparation.
“I was worried today because we missed a lot of work,” Christie said. “You wouldn’t get on our gallop this morning with the frost. We’ve done very little with him all week.
“I had been giving him an easy time after his last run just to give him a break. I was really concern today that he’d be short, but I knew I had to get him out because otherwise he gets a wee bit silly at home.
“He is not lucky, he is just a strong horse who keeps going all the way to the line.”
The victory is a 28th in the point-to-point fields alone for Winged Leader and his 32nd overall, and it puts him level with Arctic Times as the fifth winning-most point-to-point horse of all time.
