Eoghain Ward

WEXFORD-based handlers have taken the four-year-old division by storm in recent times, so it was only right that they put on a show for racegoers at their local fixture in Ballinaboola by unleashing some high-quality youngsters.

Sean Doyle has high hopes for his opening race winner, Know The Score (5/2 favourite), a Flemensfirth gelding who took all before him in division one of the Horse & Hound hotel four-year-old maiden, billing the €55,000 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale purchase as “as good a horse as I have had.”

That lofty reputation looks justified from a trainer who unleased Grade 1 winner The World’s End to make his debut in the same maiden two years earlier, as Harley Dunne guided the favourite to an impressive six-length victory over Senior Citizen.

“We gave a good price for him when we bought him, but when the hammer fell we thought that he was for nothing as he is by Flemensfirth out of a Sadler’s Wells mare and they would be as scarce as hens teeth,” remarked Doyle of the Monbeg Syndicate-owned bay gelding. “If this lad doesn’t go the whole way to the top, I really don’t know what you need.”

For the second time within the space of a fortnight, Michael Goff produced an impressive four-year-old winner, as Shane Fitzgerald guided his Clondaw’s Answer to a comprehensive six-length victory in division two.

Looking set to go close on his debut at Cragmore before coming down at the penultimate fence, the Ask gelding, who was bought by Goff for €7,200 as a yearling, made amends, as he made all the running to account for John Nallen’s Minella Mystics. Goff was set to offer his wife Catriona’s bay gelding at last night’s Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale.

At a time when former high-class track performers feature regularly among entries for open races, Fermanagh handler David Christie proved that there is still room for the ‘traditional’ point-to-pointer, as he produced Eddies Miracle (5/1) to claim the day’s feature, the Ballywalter Farms open, less than nine months after the nine-year-old had won an older maiden at the same venue.

In the intervening period, Ray Nicholas’ Beat Of Drums gelding has climbed through the ranks in winners’ company, and he saved his best performance to date for his first success in open grade. The bay gelding dug deep under regular partner Barry O’Neill to end the winning streak of Sydney Paget, by three lengths.

“I wasn’t happy with how he ran at Dowth Hall, as he came under pressure at the fourth-last which is not like him. He scoped clean so I took him to the vets and they did a lung wash and found that he had an infection deep in his lungs. The hunter chase at Cork has been his main target for the autumn,” reported Christie.

For the second year in a row, the Casey Enterprises five-year-old geldings’ maiden was won by a son of the French-based sire Montmartre, as Batcio (3-4/1) followed in the footsteps of Dimple, to provide the Haras du Hoguenet-based stallion with just his second individual points winner.

Unlucky to exit on his debut at Lisronagh, the free-going sort made much of the running, and was left clear with the fall of Andrew Latta’s Thunderosa at the second-last, having been disputing the lead at the time.

That allowed the Michael Stenson-ridden grey to return a distance clear of Ballinasilla, initiating an across the card double for winning trainer Ted Walsh, who had saddled his Grand National-third, Seabass, to win the open on the same card six years earlier.

“I’d say he will make into a nice hunter chaser on a bit of good ground. He will run in another point-to-point and then we look at hunter chasing, but he is only five. If he turns out to be another Seabass I’ll be delighted with him!” said Walsh of Batcio, whom he trains for his son-in-law Killian McCarthy.

Veteran Aztec Chief (3-5/1) claimed the most facile success of the afternoon as he breezed clear of a competitive field to land the Cooney Furlong winner of one contest for Jamie Codd and former jockey Eamonn O’Donnabhain. The Lingstown maiden winner was back from a 574-day absence to carry the colours of Denis MacAuley to a 15-length victory over Star Wizzard.

MacAuley, the chairman of the ITBA Northern region, who is famed for having bred the 2006 Champion Hurdle winner Brave Inca, was unable to witness the success as he was at Tattersalls preparing to sell foals. The winning Cork-based handler, who works for trainer Terence O’Brien noted: “It was unlucky that he didn’t get a run last year, he had a few setbacks which kept him off the track. I know that he is 11 but he has very few miles on the clock.”

Just under a year after he made his pointing debu ex-track performer, Hawk Eye Down (2-3/1), made all the running to land the Wexford Hunt older maiden for novice riders. Jumping well throughout, the Bach gelding followed-up two placed efforts with a well-deserved success under American-born jockey Jeannie Cook, who was recording her fourth success.

Kilmacow-based handler Peader Kelly, whose colours were carried to success by the seven-year-old, is now set to send his bay gelding, a €1,000 purchase at the Goffs Land Rover Sale, back to the track following his eight-length victory over Troll D’Oudairies.

Shane O’Rourke set out his intentions from flag fall aboard the James Devereux-owned Lady Mantilla (10-12/1) as he led a breakaway group of five horses who raced clear of their rivals for much of the journey in the Nitrofert adjacent mares’ maiden.

The favourite and recent Tinahely second, Agent Memphis, was not part of that group, and although she was making rapid inroads into the advantage of the Publisher mare in the dying strides, the line came too soon, as the outsider claimed success by half-a-length thanks to that enterprising ride. Winning handler Vincent Devereux is set to aim his improving mare at a winners’ contest in the coming weeks.

Rising star

JOCKEY Shane Fitzgerald certainly has the art of front-running rides down to a tee, with the tactics paying off richly of late. Victory aboard Clondaw’s Answer had added significance for the rising star, as with a career tally of 21 winners, 15 of which have been recorded in four-year-old maidens, he has now lost his 5lb claim.

Handler Pierce Power had little time to celebrate the impressive success of his Burning Ambition 24 hours earlier at Loughbrickland, as he was kept busy in his role as starter on the afternoon at his local fixture.