GAVIN Cromwell’s best flat season to date ended on a high as recent recruit Jukebox Jive made a terrific start for his new connections by landing the €100,000 Darragh Fitzpatrick & Colm White Local Bookmakers November Handicap.
The former Jamie Osborne inmate was once rated 100 but he crept into this one-and-three-quarter-mile affair off a 16lb lower mark and his task was further helped with leading English-based apprentice Sean Davis claiming a valuable 3lbs.
The Brian Honan-owned winner was pitted against an eight-strong challenge by Willie Mullins and six of these were poised within a couple of lengths of the lead at one point in the straight.
However, nothing could match Jukebox Jive (20/1) over the last furlong and a half as he defeated the Mullins-trained Buildmeupbuttercup by a one and three-quarter lengths. The improving three-year-old Halimi ran an honourable race to secure third. The winning jockey picked up a three-day whip ban for his efforts.
“I only have him five weeks but I thought that he would appreciate the ground and I did think that he would run a nice race,” said Cromwell.
“He has won over hurdles and that’s what he was bought for, but we said we’d have a crack at this first. It’s nice to win this after Highland Fling was just touched off a couple of years ago.”
Matthew Smith’s Warnaq has developed into a standing dish on the last day of the season and she notched up her third successive win on this card in the Listed Finale Stakes.
Previously a winner of a maiden and a handicap at this fixture, the five-year-old has taken her form to another level this season and she came here off three previous stakes-race placings over the course of 2019.
A first stakes winner for the trainer, the soft-ground-loving Warnaq looked to have this race sewn up for Robbie Colgan from the turn-in and she reached the line two and a quarter lengths ahead of Quote.
“A big, galloping track on this sort of ground suits her well and much of her best form is at the likes of here and Navan,” reported Smith who trains the mare for his father Kevin.
A TRULY gripping apprentice title went right to the wire and ended with a deserved tie between Andy Slattery and the 2017 champion Oisin Orr who pulled victory out of the fire with a final day double.
The pair ended the season on 43 winners apiece which meant that the apprentice title was shared for the first time since the three-way tie between Ben Curtis, Joseph O’Brien and Gary Carroll in 2010.
Orr could have been forgiven for thinking that it wasn’t going to be his year when Soul Seeker was nailed on the line in the opener. However, he then closed to within one of Slattery when Tide Of Time (13/2) took the five-furlong handicap for Eddie Lynam and the trainer’s long-standing patron Trevor Dalzell.
In the P & T Stapleton Ltd Sobac Soil Maiden, which brought down the curtain on the 2019 season, Orr struck gold aboard Dermot Weld’s Maria Christina (9/2). The Moyglare Stud-owned daughter of Kodiac got on top inside the distance to ensure that an enthralling battle between Slattery and Orr ended with honours even.
“I knew coming today I had some good rides and I had plenty of confidence in this filly having ridden her in a schooling race lately. It’s great to finish like that and even If she hadn’t won it has been a great season for me and by far my best in terms of winners,” reflected a typically understated Orr who is heading to Australia to ride for Chris Waller for the winter.
A delighted Dermot Weld added: “I was hoping that it would be a tie between Oisin and Andy. Andy’s ridden a lot of good winners for me this season but I really wanted Oisin to tie with him as it’s been a joy to have him riding for me.”
On the day he was crowned champion jockey for the second year in succession Donnacha O’Brien equalled his winning tally from 2018 as he teamed up with Nobel Prize to land the mile Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden. Highland Reel’s two-year-old brother showed a nice attitude to come out the right side of a tight finish.
Aidan O’Brien’s charged edged out fellow 6/4 joint favourite Chiracahua by a head to move his jockey on to 111 winners mark for the season.
Hayes double
ELUSIVE King ensured that a successful season for Ken Condon ended on a high as he justified some good support throughout the morning (18/1-6/1) with a last-gasp success under Chris Hayes in the six-furlong Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden.
An own-brother to Elusive Beauty, who was a stakes winner for the trainer and owner David Kelly in 2017, the Elusive Pimpernel colt built on a pleasing debut sixth here last month with a strong-finishing effort that saw him collar Soul Seeker in the final stride.
The winning jockey then notched up a double to make it 55 winners for the season when In From The Cold took the seven-furlong nursery. This €1,000 yearling purchase, who is trained by Michael Mulvany for his father Larry, has held his form well during a 13-race campaign which began on the first day of the season in March. After getting to the front with over a furlong to run, In From The Cold dug in to old Love Locket by half a length and record his second success of the season.
The last few weeks of the season have seen Mother Vincent (13/2) make striking progress through the ranks and she made it three victories on the spin in the 10-furlong handicap.
This Jim Bolger-trained and Jackie Bolger-owned filly looked to have it all to do from the rear of the field at one stage but she answered rider Willie Byrne’s every call to come from an unpromising position early in the straight to lead late on and defeat Ultra Pride by a length and a half. Mother Vincent will be back for more in the spring reported the winning trainer.