THERE were seven different winning trainers at Down Royal’s Molson Coors meeting on Tuesday when the Crawford brothers, Stuart and Ross, saddled a winner apiece.

It was a red letter day for Ross as he recorded his first racecourse success as a licensed trainer, when the Danny Mullins-ridden Green Hope landed the opening Molson Coors Beverage Company Maiden Hurdle at odds of 125/1.

The British-bred Telescope gelding, who finished fourth in two four-year-old point-to-point maidens towards the end of last year when trained by Stuart, made his debut for Ross at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting. Out of the reckoning, the bay made a mistake at the last, unseating Brian Hayes in the two and a half-mile maiden hurdle on the Sunday.

Green Hope is one of roughly 20 horses in the care of Ross at his Co Armagh yard. “I’ve a lot of everything, but not a lot of anything,” he commented. “I’ve a couple of horses for the track, four-year-olds for the spring point-to-point season, just turned two-year-olds for the flat and stores for the sales.” He didn’t get around to listing how many animals he and Kelly have for their pony-mad children.

Green Hope is owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede whose double green colours were also carried to victory later in the afternoon on the Tom Gibney-trained, J.J. Slevin-ridden Anotherway in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Rated Novice Chase.

Too late!

While Munir and Souede wouldn’t necessarily attend every meeting at which they have a runner, one would presume that Elizabeth Hamilton would definitely have been at Down Royal to see her home-bred Jony R run in the afternoon’s second race, the Franciscan Well Rated Novice Hurdle. But she wasn’t!

“I left my coat, hat and bag ready the night before but when I went out to get into the car, I discovered I didn’t have the key,” revealed Elizabeth, who passed the blame on to partner David Mitchell.

“I probably could have rung someone for a lift, but I was running 30 minutes late as it was and would have missed the race.”

Happily, the couple were able to watch the race on Racing TV and were delighted to see the Stuart Crawford-trained Jony R record his second hurdle victory in the hands of J.J. Slevin.

The seven-year-old Leading Light gelding is the first of just two foals out of the point-to-point-placed Milan mare Loughshore, who is in foal this year to Wings Of Eagles.

Honoured

The previous Tuesday, Elizabeth was honoured at the AGM of the Northern Region of Eventing Ireland for her many years’ commitment to the Region as a director and committee member. She plans to keep acting as a fence steward when she has the time.

Another owner/breeder to have a winner recently was Jane Buchanan, whose seven-year-old Soldierstown (Soldier Of Fortune - Zaffarella, by Zaffaran), trained by her brother Peter, won a mares’ maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse last Thursday week.

There were wins also for the Stephanie Metcalfe-bred Always A Reason (Elusive Pimpernel - Gaye Annie, by Tikkanen), the Denis Macauley-bred Sinchi Roca (Getaway - Quri, by Gold Well), the Danny Doran-bred Scorpio Rising (Jukebox Jury - Sixofone, by Tikkanen) plus the Paul and Margaret Haughey-bred Aworkinprogress (Soldier Of Fortune - Reine D’Or, by Presenting).

Riders hit international jackpot

WE’RE heading further afield than usual to start our winning jockeys’ column today with the first port of call being Australia where, on Saturday, Martin Harley had three rides for the Chris and Corey Munce yard on the TAB Magic Millions card on the Gold Coast.

The Donegal native landed the $1m Fillies and Mares Race on Poster Girl, finished third on Oberoni Princess in the $500,000 Country Cup and was sixth on Ziplock in the $3m Two-Year-Old Classic, a place behind the James Harron Bloodstock runner Knightsbridge.

Moving up to Hong Kong where, on Sunday, Dylan Browne McMonagle recorded his first success in the Special Administrative Region when landing the Class 4 handicap at Sha Tin on the John Size-trained Flow Water Flow, a four-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding by Proisir.

Dylan double

At the same track on Wednesday, the 22-year-old Donegal-born jockey doubled his tally when winning a Class 3 handicap on dirt on the Ricky Yiu-trained Dragon Air Force.

On the level closer to home, there were wins for Darragh Keenan at Lingfield on Saturday and Southwell on Tuesday, while Patsy Cosgrave was on the mark at Newcastle last Friday.

On the flat breeding front, there was a win at Dundalk for the Denis Hogan-trained 15/8 favourite Dontspoilasale. Running in the colours of James McAuley (who featured in ‘The Owner’ column last Saturday), the six-year-old Kuroshio gelding was bred by Pat Turley out of the winning Naaqoos mare Destiny’s Kitten.

It was good to see the Kingsfield Stud owners have a winner following the fatal fall of the Kodi Bear gelding Wertpol at Kempton the previous Saturday.

UK points success for Northern bred

HAPPILY, Irish-breds landed the vast majority of point-to-point races in Ireland and Britain last weekend but we could only find one foaled locally, Camdonian, winner of the men’s open at the re-scheduled Yorkshire Area meeting at Sheriff Hutton on Sunday.

Owned and trained by Grania Furness, whose son Christy was in the saddle, the 10-year-old Shantou gelding was bred by Tom Foy who had the bay prepped for the 2016 November National Hunt Sale at Tattersalls Ireland by the team at CAFRE’s Enniskillen Campus.

Camdonian, who was placed over hurdles and is now the winner of nine of his 13 starts in point-to-points, is the third of eight recorded foals out of the Bob Back mare, Miss Garbo. His 2018 full-brother Mister Meggit, who won two bumpers, a novices’ hurdle and was Grade 1-placed over hurdles, sadly suffered a fatal injury in his stable last November.

On a happier note, Miss Garbo’s 2025 colt by Workforce is catalogued as Lot 72 at the February Sale in Goffs.

Dale Peters, who rode two winners at Sheriff Hutton, trained all three winners he partnered on Saturday at Revesby Park including the one-time Stuart Crawford-trained Largy Pearl.

THE 2025/26 point-to-point season in Northern Ireland resumes today with the first of the two spring meetings at the Corbett family’s seaside venue of Tyrella.

Twenty years ago - on Saturday, January 28th to be exact - Mark O’Hare recorded a short-priced double on two horses trained by Ian Ferguson for Ronnie Bartlett.

The first of the pair to strike, in the opening 13-runner ‘winners of two’, was the 7/4 favourite Tamayo while the great hunter chaser Joe Blake, bred locally by Aaron Metcalfe, landed the 14-runner open at odds of 5/4.

Liam Lennon, who rode Joe Blake during the early part of his career, saddled the James Smyth-partnered Sunny Ville to win the intervening five and six-year-old geldings’ maiden in which 18 horses started.

There were 18 runners also in the older mares’ maiden won by the James Gault-ridden 20/1 shot Maureen’s Girl, 10 in both divisions of the five and six-year-old mares’ maiden and 12 and 11 in the divisions of the novice riders’ older geldings’ maiden.

O’Hare also landed a double on Saturday, February 6th, 2016 this time joining forces with Jerry Cosgrave to win the opening mares’ maiden with Ian Moore’s Beneficial bay Champagne To Go.

Roughly an hour later, the six-runner ‘winners of two’ went to Carnglave Racing’s Clondaw Frisby who was sent off as the 4/6 favourite.

Co Meath trainer Peter Flood also saddled two winners, viz the Jamie Codd-ridden Sergeant Brody and the Barry Browne-partnered Moon Dice in the six-strong open.

Co Wexford’s Rob James doubled up on the Prunella Dobbs-trained Miss Honeypennie in the older mares’ maiden and the Warren Ewing-trained, Leonard Cave-owned, David Mitchell-bred Rockportian in the six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden.