Image © Healy Racing
Ballyphilip successfully transferred his winning run between the flags to the racecourse as he continued his successful sequence in the C & C White Maiden Hunter Chase.
Ballyphilip successfully transferred his winning run between the flags to the racecourse as he continued his successful sequence in the C & C White Maiden Hunter Chase.
Caroline McCaldin’s six-year-old has enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks this season, winning five races in a row, beginning with his older maiden at Farmacaffley in late February, with the latest of his wins in the pointing fields having come just 48 hours earlier in a three-runner adjacent winners race at Necarne.
The quick turnaround proved to be little inconvenience to him, however, as the 9/2 shot jumped off at the front of the field.
With no shortage of keen-going front-runners in the line-up, his rider Noel McParlan elected to take him back, allowing the strong-travelling Bold Fury and Focus Point to stride on after the opening five fences.
That pair swiftly opened up a sizeable advantage, however that was steadily whittled away entering into the final seven furlongs, as McParlan always appeared to be travelling with confidence.
To his credit, the Kirkistown maiden winner Bold Fury did not go down without a fight and kept the Presenting gelding honest, but Ballyphilip was able to assert from the final fence as Bold Fury’s stable companion Drumnasoo came through to take the second spot inside the closing stages, some two and a quarter lengths adrift at the line.
“He is improving every time, he is starting to learn his job now, he still needs to learn to settle a bit in front but they went a fair gallop in front and it settled him well,” McParlan said.
“I think he could improve into a fair decent horse, he has the size and scope, and he jumps fences well. Caroline has done a serious job with him.
“There were a few front runners in it, and he has made the running in his points. I just jumped off and let him roll out over the first and see because sometimes we are all going to go a gallop, and then nobody goes. When I saw them coming at him, I just got him to pull back, and he switched off grand behind them. He did it well; hopefully, he will improve away for next year.
“That is his first time on a big, galloping track and he still felt green. In his point-to-points when he has got there, he has been rolling about in front, but he is improving every run.”
