THIS weekend 20 years ago Connolly’s Red Mills sponsored every race on the card at Gowran Park. While the card now contains two Grade 2 races, and the meeting is very much a Cheltenham trials event, two decades ago only the hurdle race got the winner and placed horses blacktype, and then it was Grade 3. Much has changed in the meanwhile.

Even back then attracting big fields was a challenge and the two main races on the card each had just four runners. It was a case of quality over quantity then as now.

Danoli started at odds on for the two-mile Grade 3 Red Mills Trial Hurdle, Tom Foley’s stable star running out an eight-length winner in the colours of Dan O’Neill and the hands of Tommy Treacy. Aidan O’Brien trained the runner-up Tiananmen Square, ridden by Charlie Swan, while the other runners were Holders Hill and Jupiter Jimmy.

Next time out Danoli finished fourth behind Collier Bay, Alderbrook and Pridwell in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham before going on to chase home Urubande and Strong Promise in the Grade 1 Martell Aintree Hurdle. The Gowran Park win was to be the last of his nine victories over the smaller obstacles and he had his attention turned to chasing the following season.

The hugely talented Tiananmen Square also headed to Cheltenham for his next start in the Stayers’ Hurdle but he was pulled up and this was the last time he was seen on a racecourse.

There was little between the first three in the betting for the two and a half-mile Red Mills Chase, but that was not the case when the race was over. They were the only runners to finish but the race was something of a procession with the winner Lisselan Prince being an eased-down 20 length winner from Percy Brennan, while the third finisher Stradballey was a distance away in third.

Lisselan Prince was owned by Lisselan Farms, most famously the owners of Imperial Call, and was trained by Fergie Sutherland. Conor O’Dwyer was in the plate at Gowran Park as he would be four weeks later when the same combination of owner, trainer and jockey won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

treble

Victory for Lisselan Prince was the first leg of a treble on the card for the winning rider, O’Dwyer going on to ride two winners for Mouse Morris. Mulligan won the Red Mills Quality Feed Maiden Hurdle, with New Co capturing the Red Mills Hi-Pro Handicap Hurdle half an hour later.

Mulligan went on to become a dual Grade 2 chase winner and was placed a number of times in Grade 1 company, while New Co later in the year added the Grade 2 Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown to his winning record.

The meeting opened with Garrett Cotter guiding Alligator Joe to victory in the Red Mills Stable Feed Beginners Chase for trainer Ted Walsh. The gelding, a useful dual-purpose type, raced in the colours of the trainer’s wife Helen. Anthony Powell chased the 9/1 winner home on Wallys Run.

Having landed the feature race with Danoli, Tom Foley saddled the favourite, Sharatan, for the next race on the card, the Red Mills Premier 4-y-o Maiden Hurdle. Making his hurdling debut, his jumping was not fluent and he had to settle for the runner-up spot behind Storm Damage, a winner for champion jockey Charlie Swan and trainer Ger Hourigan. The winner won twice more for Hourigan before joining Paul Nicholls for whom he won seven chases.

Formerly owned by the Aga Khan and trained by John Oxx, Sharatan had been disqualified after winning a maiden at Gowran Park and before he was sold on to Foley and owner Dorothy Weld. He paid two more visits to the Co Kilkenny track in 1996, winning on the flat and being victorious in a maiden hurdle.

Mullins

Willie Mullins trained and rode the winner of the concluding bumper on the Miner’s Lamp gelding Impulsive Dream, and 10 months earlier he was second in a point-to-point at Gowran on the same gelding.

Donal O’Connor owned the winner, who was bred by Michael Clancy and Esther Feeney, but not for long as after the win he was sold to Scott Lloyd, an owner with Edward O’Grady for whom he won a few races, latterly a point-to-point.

Willie’s was not the only Mullins involvement in the bumper. His father trained the fourth-placed Cailin Supreme, later the dam of Black Jack Ketchum, while Mag Mullins rode Del Piero, trained by Tony, but finished down the field. In August Del Piero reappeared at Tipperary and won his bumper, but on that occasion Willie was given the leg up.

All the races on the day were sponsored by William Connolly & Sons.

The following day racing fans moved up the road to Punchestown where the winners included Johnny Setaside in the National Trial Chase, Castlekellyleader in the Grade 2 novice hurdle, while Gordon Elliott won the bumper for owner Tom Conroy and trainer Michael O’Brien with Glebe Lad who was making his debut. The gelding gained his most important win three years later in the Irish Grand National.