AMONG the five Irish-bred winners on the eight-race card at Chaddesley Corbett last Friday was the newcomer Hudson Yard who, in claiming division one of the two and a half-mile four, five and six-year-old maiden, became the first winner to be sent out from A.P. McCoy’s Lodge Down Stables in Lambourn.

Mainly a breaking, spelling and pre-training establishment, which was officially opened in the autumn of 2017. The yard is managed by Co Kilkenny native Ciaran O’Brien in whose colours the Yeats filly ran at the Harkaway Club fixture.

The bay was partnered by Ratoath’s Martin McIntyre who was recording his first success of the 2018/2019 campaign.

Hudson Yard was bred in Co Cork by Kristene Hunter and is the second foal out of That’s Moyne (by Flemensfirth). The first was the Scorpion mare She Mite Bite who cost Co Antrim’s Robert Armstrong £800 as a foal and was sold for €28,000 to Highflyer Bloodstock at Doncaster in May 2018 having won a Loughanmore mares’ maiden on her second start.

She has run three times for Nicky Henderson, most recently finishing third in a two-mile, five-furlong novice hurdle at Warwick on Monday. “Ours is a fine, big mare,” said O’Brien.

“She could win a bumper but, if not sold, she will have to move on from here as we haven’t as yet got a full licence. This is a quiet time of year for us as the yearlings and store horses we have broken have all gone to their respective trainers so it was nice to have a runner.

“It would be good if we could start producing four-year-old pointers over here like the Wexford lads are doing and it would also help us hold on to the three very good full-time riders we have at Lodge Down Stables.”

O’Brien rode a few point-to-point winners here before turning professional. During his career as a jockey he was champion conditional and rode mainly for Arthur Moore and John Kiely. For the former, he partnered Tarthooth to victory in the Grade 3 Sillogue Novice Hurdle and he won the Listed Findus Handicap Chase on the Kiely-trained King Of The Gales.

O’Brien was successfully training about 50 horses (many of them young pointers) in Co Clare when the recession struck.

He then worked with Alan King for four years before moving to McCoy’s new enterprise in November 2017. The former multiple champion jockey missed seeing Hudson Yard win as he was attending day three of the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.

It was a very busy holiday period for the McCoy family, as A.P. was on the winning men’s team in the injured jockeys’ fund-raising show jumping challenge at the London international show in Olympia prior to Christmas, while, last Sunday, daughter Eve, and Britain’s Tony Pearson, finished sixth in the mini/major relay competition at the international show in Liverpool.

Also at Chaddesley Corbett, Somerset trainer Johnny Farrelly, another to ride here as an amateur and a professional, saw his own colours carried to success in the 18-runner club members’ race for novice riders by the Luca Morgan-partnered Portrait King.

The 25/1 shot, the Portrait Gallery gelding was having his second start in a British point-to-point having been previously trained here by Paddy Griffin and Maurice Phelan. Riding for her trainer mother Caroline, Immy Robinson landed the opening club members restricted race over two and a half miles on the Stowaway gelding Myoldman, while James King won the 19-runner conditions race on the Gareth Moore-trained Risk A Fine, a gelding by Saffron Walden.

The reigning men’s champion, Alex Edwards, and champion trainer, Phil Rowley, won the men’s open with the Milan gelding Hazel Hill who was having his first start of the season.

double

The current ladies’ champion, Gina Andrews, recorded a double. Teaming up with trainer Alan Hill, Andrews also struck twice on Sunday at Cottenham where she landed the hunt club members’ conditions race on the 2010 Flemensfirth gelding Hawkhurst and the ladies’ open with the 2007 Milan gelding Sharp Suit.

Her younger brother Jack won the men’s open on Just Cause who is trained by James Owen. The 4/5 favourite Captiva Island, he had to settle for second in the restricted which was won by Jamie Brace on the Jamie Goss-owned and trained Tricky Silence, a gelding by Whitmore’s Conn.

The Portrait Gallery gelding Zeroeshadesofgrey landed the CA club members conditions race for novice riders under owner Charlie Buckle.

Irish-breds won the two maiden races on Sunday. In the three-mile open, Tom Chatfeild-Roberts took the honours on the Helen Connors-trained Worthapunt, a Fruits Of Love gelding who was making his British debut having finished second on the last of three starts here last spring for Paul O’Flynn. The bay, by Luso, was bred by Denis McAuliffe.

There were only five starters in the concluding race a maiden for four, five and six-year-olds and it was the rank outsider, Mano Cornuto, who won for trainer Gemma Cobb and rider Charlie Marshell. Having his second outing in Britain, the Grandera gelding, who was bred by Sean O’Brien. Mano Cornuto finished fifth twice in two runs here last spring for Graham McKeever.

First track success for Carver

BRYAN Carver, whose three wins between the flags this season have given him a career total of 17, recorded his first success on the track at Wincanton on St Stephen’s Day.

The Kanturk native was on board the Ron Hodges-trained 2014 Midnight Legend gelding Midnight Midge who made nearly all the running in the near two-mile novices’ handicap hurdle to score by two lengths at odds of 25/1.

Over the extended Christmas period, Co Galway-born Tommie O’Brien won two races on the track viz a juvenile fillies’ maiden hurdle at Doncaster last Saturday on Via Delle Volte for his boss Tom Lacey and an amateur handicap chase at Fakenham on New Year’s Day with the Christian Williams-trained Sideways.