Report | Loughrea 19th May 2019

Wexford rider Rob James enjoyed a hugely successful day at Loughrea on Sunday when recording a treble and landing the fixtures leading rider title.

The first of his successes came aboard Gunsight Ridge in the Goffs UK Spring Sale four-year-old maiden for fellow Wexford native Donnchadh Doyle.

The son of Midnight Legend ran out an impressive four-length winner when denying the Denis Murphy-trained Pats Fancy in comprehensive fashion.

The winner who was purchased from the Derby sale for €65,000 as a store will now head to the sales.
Jim O'Neill who was on hand representing the winning handler, said: “He is a beautiful horse, Donnchadh (Doyle) filled me with a lot of confidence coming up here.
"He said it would take a fair horse to beat him and the lads at home were raving about him all year.”

Rob James' second victory came in the ITBA five-year-old and upwards mares' maiden courtesy of Atlantic Blaze.

The daughter of Kalanisi, who is handled by Mark McNiff, got up in the dying strides of this contest to defeat Frank And Honest in a thrilling finish, with just a neck separating the pair.

Last seen on her debut when finishing fourth on the first day of the season, the mare overcame a 225 day absence to score in this nine runner contest, having had a mid-season break.

“She ran well the first day of the season. She had a small setback after that so we gave her a break. This is a good mare, she works very well at home, she just jumps stays. We will talk to the owners now with regards to future plans,” said the winning handler.

Golden Nomad brought up the treble for Rob James when taking the Leah Haggarty Clark MH winner-of-two contest for Colin Bowe, who secured an across the card treble on the day.

The son of Gold Well survived an error at the last to run out a three length winner over the William O'Doherty-trained Clonguile Way.

The victory marked the geldings’ second success of the season having won a four-year-old maiden at Toomebridge back in October, the success also marked Colin Bowe’s 43rd winner of the season.

The winning rider said: “He won the opening day of the season. He is a horse who is improving away and he loved the ground and will probably go for a winner’s race now.”

Donnchadh Doyle secured his second success at the Galway venue when Premier D'Troice secured the Tattersalls Ireland five-and-six-year-old geldings maiden in the hands of Brian Lawless.

The French-bred son of Great Pretender put in a fine jump over the penultimate fence before going on to defeat Freedelivery by half-a-length.

The runner up was handled by Donnchadh's brother Sean Doyle who said of his brother's charge: "We will probably go back to the track with this lad. He is a horse that is still a bit green, he had two runs over hurdles last summer and it really educated him. He will go for a maiden hurdle now.”

Longhouse Music recorded her eleventh success of the season when taking the Galway Race Committee open putting the daughter of Gamut one ahead of Kruzhlinin in the race to become champion pointer – a tally matched by Kruzhlinin later in the afternoon at Ballindenisk.

It was a thrilling end to this three runner contest, when the Sam Curling-trained winner came through at the final fence to pick up the advantage under Derek O'Connor before denying Pat Doyle's Sammontom by a length-and-a-half.

The winning handler said: “She was very good there. Sammantom made it a good race so we are delighted. I see Kruzhlinin is due to run today as well, they are two great horses and hopefully they stay sound and fight out the title until the end of the year. We will probably aim for the two mares’ opens on the last weekend now.”

The V. P. Shields five-year-old and upwards adjacent maiden went to Rockin Roxtown for Clare handler Niall Kelleher.

The success marked a red letter day for the winning rider, 20-year-old Clare native Diarmuid Moloney who was gaining his first career success. The son of Scorpion ran out a three-length winner having being given a well-judged front running ride to deny the Donal Hassett-trained Paddy Buns.

The winning handler was on hand to say: “It’s great to give Diarmuid his first winner, he rides out a good bit for me and a he is a lad with a big future. We will aim the horse at a winners' race now, we got him privately and he is a good fun horse to give Diarmuid a bit of experience.”