THERE was great excitement when Penny Perfect landed the two-mile, six-furlong Randox Maiden Hurdle at Downpatrick on Bank Holiday Monday and would it seem that more than one person has to be credited with this success.
Getting the less local associations out of the way, the four-year-old Capri mare is trained by Gordon Ellott and was ridden to her nine and a half-length victory by Danny Gilligan. He had also partnered the chesnut when she finished fourth of eight over two and a quarter miles here earlier in the month on her first start.
Now to the nitty gritty, Penny Perfect runs in the colours Cecilia Magill. The owner’s daughter Lucy purchased the mare last year. The owner’s husband, and the buyer’s father, Peter Magill, a Director at Downpatrick, then got involved.
“She’s only about 15.1hh and we never thought she would be a race mare. We sent her to Brian Hamilton to pre-train and to see if she had ability. I watched her a few times at Brian’s and we decided to send her to Gordon. He and I go back a long way and it was always a dream to have a horse in training with him.
“On Monday, it was like a fairytale really. I never thought that this little lady would win a maiden hurdle at Downpatrick and I suppose with me being a Director there it made the win extra special.” Looking at post-race photographs Penny Perfect appears to be owned by many more members of the extended Magill family!
One member of the family not at Downpatrick on Monday was Peter and Cecilia’s son, and Lucy’s brother, Harry who has no interest in horses. “Harry works in the family business (W&C Glazing) Monday to Friday but is mad about farming,” commented Peter. “He has his own cattle and milks for a neighbouring farmer at the weekends.”
WE’re only now reading about hound exercise mornings and already we are also reading about deadlines for hunter certificates for the early season point-to-points.
It’s probably a rather apt time then to look at some point-to-point graduates who recently won on the racecourse and there were a few of them who did so on Monday.
At Ballinrobe, the former Patrick Turley-trained, and bred, seven-year-old gelding King Of Kingsfield (Vadamos – Passion Planet, by Medicean) won his fourth race for the Gordon Elliott yard, scoring by eight lengths from David Christie’s former charge, The Dara Man.
At Cartmel, the former Graham McKeever-trained nine-year-old gelding Do No Wrong (Sageburg – Uncommitted, by Dr Massini), who was bred by J.P. King and Patrick Turley, won the two-mile, six-furlong handicap hurdle under Brian Hughes.
At the local meeting at Downpatrick, the opening AJC Group Maiden Hurdle over two and a quarter miles was won by the former Brian Hamilton-trained Camlin Park, a five-year-old mare by Affinisea who initiated a double for the very much in-form Alex Harvey. Now in the care of John McConnell, the bay was bred by Jeremy Maxwell out of the Layman mare Ismane, a six-time winner in her native France.
The Randox Handicap Hurdle over two miles and six furlongs was won by the six-year-old Mastercraftsman gelding Our Zebo who was bred by John and Margery Adams out of the Dalakhani mare Gelenschik.
Trainer Noel Kelly won a point-to-point maiden with this grey who was recording his third track success on Monday.
One could use up a lot of one’s valuable time going through the great photographs of racegoers that the Downpatrick team publish on their social media pages.
THERE were also wins on the racehorse to riding horse scene recently for Northern-bred horses.
Probably the most high profile of these was that of the Fred Mackey-bred Native River in the open class at the Tattersalls Ireland Treo Eile showing pathway series final at Iverk Show on Saturday (see page 92 for full report).
At last week’s Jockey Club RoR national championships show at Aintree, we noticed wins for two nine-year-old gelding, viz the Berry Farms-bred Keepthefaithinme (Getaway – Lady Bishop by High Chaparral) and for Kennedy-bred Absolute Dream (Dream Ahead – Absolute Diamond, by Monsieur Bond). There could well have been more as there were over a hundred classes or championships.
Stattler
The 2015 Stowaway gelding Stattler, who was purchased as a three-year-old by Ian Ferguson for Ronnie Bartlett, won the wordy ‘Tattersalls Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) amateur ridden show horse qualifier’ at Scone Palace last week under Ruth Clark who works for Bartlett.
A show jumper I suppose I should mention is the Irish Sport Horse gelding Shanroe Peeters who won the 5* 1.50m class at the Global Champions Tour fixture in Valkenswaard, The Netherlands at the weekend under Dutch rider Kevin Jochems. As his name would suggest, the 11-year-old Dallas VDL gelding was bred by one of the Smyths, in this instance Anthony.
THE Northern Region of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association is holding its 2024 Breeders’ Award Lunch at Downpatrick on Friday, September 19th when the guest of honour will be dual Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Noel Chance with James Griffin acting as MC.
This important annual gathering celebrates and honours the achievements of breeders in the Northern Region whose horses have excelled on the track over the past year. It also brings together breeders, owners, trainers and key figures from across the industry. Tickets priced at £77.50 can be organised through the ITBA’s membership coordinator, Danielle Devaney (ddeveney@itba.ie).