THE Tipperary Foxhounds hosted their opening fixture of the season at Lisronagh last Saturday, with the feature race being the first mares’ open of the campaign.
Local handler Sam Curling has enjoyed a remarkable record in this particular contest, winning six of the previous seven runnings, and he added a seventh success to his tally this year courtesy of last season’s champion mare, The Great Unknown (1/3 - 1/4 favourite).
Returning to action, Adelia Greer’s charge justified her short market price by picking up where she left off last term, finishing strongest to account for runner-up Moviddy by two lengths under Derek O’Connor.
“I’m delighted she’s back,” said Curling afterwards. “She’s going real well and the lads are doing a great job with her at home. She’ll keep going point-to-pointing for now and we’ll see how many she can win.”
Making all
Another mare to justify strong market support was the Eamonn Doyle-trained Annabelle Park (6/5 - 5/4 favourite), who made every yard a winning one under Alan Harney in the opening four-year-old mares’ maiden.
Owned by Mossy Fen Stables Partnership, the daughter of Walk In The Park displayed all the attributes of a promising individual, jumping fluently and travelling strongly on the front end before showing a determined attitude when challenged by the debutant runner-up Moise Teene in the closing stages.
“I bought her as a foal off Michael O’Neill,” explained the winning handler. “She had a lovely first run last season and improved over the summer. She’ll go to the sales now.”
Doyles double up
Further success soon followed for the Doyle brothers, coming just 30 minutes later in the four-year-old geldings’ maiden.
The Donnchadh Doyle-trained League Of Legends (3/1 - 5/2) received a patient ride from Rob James before being produced and eventually outbattled debutant runner-up Soldier’s Revenge on the run-in.
Owned by the Monbeg Syndicate, the son of Nirvana Du Berlais made smooth headway down the back before swooping around his rivals on the turn for home, sticking gamely to his task in the straight.
“We always liked him,” explained Eamonn Doyle. “He had a few disappointing runs, but he had a nice seasonal reappearance last weekend and he did it well today.”
TWENTY-two-year-old Co Cork rider Tessa Condon, who recently recorded her first track success at Clonmel, added an initial point-to-point winner to her tally aboard the Aidan Fitzgerald-trained Chiefs Kingdom (1/1 - 5/4 favourite), taking the concluding six-year-old-and-upwards maiden by a comfortable seven lengths from runner-up, Sense The Tension.
Owned by Manverton Limited, the eight-year-old son of Soldier Of Fortune now looks set to progress to winners’ level.
“Tessa comes into us four days a week,” commented Fitzgerald. “I met her at the sales over the summer, and I said to her if you come in, I’ll give you a few rides. We ran this lad the last day; he was just not long back in and came on lovely for the run.”
Wide-margin win
Another Co Carlow raider to make a successful trip to Lisronagh was Ballycurragh handler Willie Murphy, who sent out the Pat McCarthy-owned Follow Markava (4/6 - 4/7 favourite) to score by a widening 38 lengths under Pa King in the five-year-old mares’ maiden.
The daughter of Zambezi Sun had been just touched off at Curraghmore six days earlier and, with the benefit of that outing, King elected to dictate matters from the front.
Having fenced well throughout, she ultimately proved much too good for her two rivals, extending her advantage from the turn into the straight.
“She gave a good exhibition of jumping and she’s learning on the job all the time,” commented the winning handler. “I’d imagine we’ll try and sell her now.”
ONE of the standout performances of the afternoon belonged to Jetanna (4/1 - 9/2), who made a winning debut in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden for Co Westmeath handler Ciaran Murphy.
An imposing son of Jet Away, he travelled strongly into contention before being delivered with his challenge by Matthew Love on the run to the penultimate fence. He then forged clear on the run-in to account for runner-up Faith Formation by four and a half lengths.
“We liked him all along, only for he’s so big we took our time with him,” said Aaron Murphy. “His owner Paul Hennessy has been very patient with him. Matt comes into us a couple of days a week, so he’ll ride plenty for us for the year.”
Horse to follow
Moise Teene (S. Curling): She really caught the eye in the preliminaries. The towering grey daughter of Moise Has is out of Turgeon dam and had been acquired for €65,000 at Tattersalls Derby Sale.
She received a patient ride before making good progress in the final mile and only gave best to the more experienced winner by a neck at the line.
She is sure to improve for this initial experience and can easily go one better on her next start.