Bay wins on the hill

ALTHOUGH he had to settle for second with Walking On Glass earlier on the card, Padraig Roche did make his mark with the admirable Bay Hill in the Bluegrass Feeds Mullacurry Cup Handicap Hurdle.

A winner on the flat, over hurdles and as a chaser, Bay Hill was taking his earnings past €100,000 as he made it 10 wins from 39 career outings. Darragh O’Keeffe’s mount got tightened up for room at one stage, but he responded well to put himself back into the thick of the action in the straight and the 9/4 favourite went on to defeat Quantatmental by two and three-quarter lengths.

Black Label (5/1) is another durable handicapper and he made it eight wins from 83 career starts in the John Purfield Memorial Handicap Hurdle over three miles, which gave Darragh O’Keeffe yet another double. As he looked to record his first success since joining Karl Thornton, the eight-year-old arrived on the scene late to take the measure of Jamie Sommers and Fred The Foot. However, he was clinging on at the end as Alohamora’s whirlwind charge carried her to within a nose at the line.

For the second time in three years, Lisa O’Neill partnered the winner of the Woods Financial-sponsored lady riders’ bumper as Nigel Slevin’s Sweettowatch (9/2) delivered on the promise of her neck second at Sligo two months previously. The Thomas Connolly-owned daughter of Fracas was always containing Tecumseh Sherman over the last furlong.

Whip Rules

Billy Lee (Tipperary) and Conor Orr (Bellewstown) were both referred on to the I.H.R.B. as a result of having had three or more breaches of the new whip rules since they came into effect.

Also referred on to the I.H.R.B. was a problem with the new weighing scales system which resulted in Alan Persse being weighed out on three separate occasions for the apprentice handicap at Tipperary which resulted in a delay of 10 minutes to the starting time of the race.