Saturday

THE McAleer/ Hevey domination of the major harness racing meetings in Ireland continued at Lyre last weekend. St Margarets-based driver Troy McAleer won an impressive six races over the two-day Red John Memorial meeting. Two of Troy’s winners were for ‘TV Tom’ Hevey, with three for Limerick-based Anthony O’ Donnell and another for his uncle Andrew Joyce.

The story goes that TV Tom’s nickname was coined by the late Hughie Richardson. In the late ‘80s, RTE television used to cover the harness racing in the main arena at Dublin Horse Show and Tom fell in love with the camera.

Tom Hevey and Troy McAleer are a serious combination at the moment. The old guard are trailing in their wake. Northern Pride (1/4 favourite) easily won the Red Mills Free For All pace from Always Skye (Eoin Murphy).

Newtown Major was beaten on the Saturday when Chris O’Reilly (Biggins) took the lead, a race-winning move. However, on Sunday, Troy went to the top and the plucky 12-year-old kept on plugging to win the feature, The Red John Memorial Pace.

“He’s not what he was four years ago, but he still loves racing,” commented Troy in a post-race interview.

Credit for the committee

The committee deserves great credit for getting through nine races on Saturday and seven on Sunday. Overnight rain made things difficult. Ger Heggarty’s land must be well drained to stand the elements. A team of volunteers moved the ‘pegs’ several times.

The heavy going blunted the speed of some runners. Not so Lady Lou from the O’Donnell barn. The four-year-old mare took off like a rocket on both Saturday and Sunday when Troy asked her. Her sire, Sweet Lou, is the global sensation these days. Although Sweet Lou will have runners in New Zealand, where they also race on grass, it’s doubtful that any of his progeny will encounter ‘soft’ like this.

Two of Troy’s winners were on the trotting gait. In Saturday’s Drinagh Co-op Trot, Kaline Des Raques stayed trotting while Isba Quick (Adam Corey) made a skip. Fandango De Nile (Jamie Hurley) stayed on for second. The Coreys from Glengormley could only manage one second place from three runs over the weekend, but these great sportsmen will be back.

Fiesta Tejy, tall and light with a low action, would not come across as the obvious type to handle a grass track, but handle it she did to reward Troy’s supporters once more in Saturday’s O’Donovan Welding Trot.

Catching up

Patrick Hill has now won four Maven Trots. The race is named in honour of principal sponsor Bill Donovan’s great mare, who won over $2,000,000. At €50,966 going into the weekend, Patrick’s Hallow Way Road (6/1 on the day) has a way to go to catch up on Bill’s mare, but he picked up €4,200 in beating Isba Quick (Adam Corey), in the wars again.

The track called for a ‘dour stayer’ and ‘dour stayer’ is Brutenor’s middle name. The tough 14-year-old (3/1) outbattled the well-backed Elysium d’Ostal (John Boy Roche) to win Saturday’s McCarthy’s Bar Trot.

The winner is that rarest of rare commodities, a winner tipped in this column. Saturday’s Lisavaird Co-op Trot saw the wide money for Gentleman Coglais (Donal Murphy), but Michael O’Mahony took the spoils with Pete Hill’s Humour De Cosse.

All in all, a treble over the weekend for Hillside Farms from Leap.

“Hallow Way Road usually doesn’t like those conditions. The race is in memory of an old friend.” said Patrick during the week. “Brutnenor is just an old warrior.”

Sunday

SUNDAY’S Free For All Trot was also in honour of Maven, but carried the Liam Carlin Memorial Cup, which went for the second time in three years to Duc d’Arry and Denis O’Reilly. Duc d’Arry beat the hot favourite Harry Knows, who found it hard to close on the leader in the slippy going.

Chris O’Reilly’s Biggins has been like a new horse since the Drimoleague man started keeping him in a paddock. They sprang one of the upsets of the weekend in overturning Newtown Major for the Village Inn, Enniskeane Pace. Chris’s smile was as wide as the bridge of a sulky.

John Cross junior from Limerick drove his first winner on the track proper when the well-bred Bet On Me beat another ‘Yank’, Beach Dragon (Jamie Hurley) in Saturday’s Beehive Bar maiden.

The joke used to go that Christy Brown saved a penalty and was carried off by his teammates. We can now add ‘won the Perfect Sting Grade F pace’ to the achievements as the equine Christy Brown scored for Schull owner Liam O’Brien with Eoin Murphy in the bike.

Stateside Phoenix seems to have got the galloping bug out of his system, as Sunday’s Astra Construction Pace made it two clear rounds in a row. Patrick Kane junior is usually supremely confident, but admitted to compere John Sheehy that he was unsure if this speedy sort would handle the track. The Patrick Kane winner drifted in the market, a first in living memory.

Family fortunes

Another Kane making it two in a row was cousin Sean, who followed up his win on the hard by scoring on grass with Kondor De Vandel. “I really liked him early in the year, he just took a while to come back to form,” said The Naul-based Sean. Quills of Kenmare sponsored this, a Grade F affair.

Top Dollar (5/4 best) went into a few notebooks following a facile win in the Mervue Equine D to E pace. Jamie Hurley was confident on Dylan O’Reilly’s son of Coleraine’s own For A Few Dollars More. The winner was bought recently from Hamish Muirhead of Bannockburn, who does so much to keep trotting alive in Scotland. Coalford Goodfella was second for the Mannings from Limerick.

The layers reported turnover to be quiet, understandable given the weather. Overall the betting was a ‘score draw’.

Thanks go to the impressive list of sponsors, both local and far flung. As usual, the West Cork community rallied around harness racing. Hopefully, the planned quarry dust track for this site will be laid for the 2026 meeting. The committee were working on Monday and discussing improvements to the racing on offer.

The season continues

The Cork region have now pulled stumps for 2026 as the recent weather has decimated their grass venues.

The season continues at Annaghmore until late October. UK trainers could do worse than send over some runners as the prize money is decent. A meeting will be held Sunday, September 20th with a three-year-old trot scheduled.

The track is at J13 M1, or eight miles west of Richhill.

Replays of all the races herein can be watched on IHRA YouTube Channel. Entries and results are at www.irishharnessracing.com