A VARIED campaign which has posed a series of different questions and yielded some impressive responses yielded yet another high for the likeable Mr Adjudicator as he gave Willie Mullins a fourth win in five years in the €120,000 Guinness Handicap for owner David Bobbett.

The former Triumph Hurdle second enjoyed precious little luck in running in the amateur riders’ handicap on Monday but this was altogether smoother as he justified 11/8 favouritism under Kevin Manning who was winning this for the first time since Danaa Minni in 1995.

Successful in a big handicap hurdle at Puchestown and a Grade 2 at Auteuil in recent months, Mr Adjudicator has coped well with a busy schedule as he showed with a determined success. Manning got him out and rolling before the turn-in and he sustained that effort to hold Camphor by three-quarters of a length, with Latoyah Of North a further half-length back.

“I thought Kevin was very forceful and made up his mind for him. The horse can be sluggish out of the stalls but Kevin got him into a good position from early which gave him options,” stated Mullins. “This horse has done a lot in the last few months so the question now is whether to give him a break until the spring or aim him at the Cesarewitch.”

Earlier, Mullins produced Minella Beau to win at this meeting for the third year in succession as the Annette Mee-owned gelding took the Guinness Galway Blazers Handicap Chase. The eight-year-old lost his way over the winter but, not for the first time, he turned out all the better for a break.

On his first run since contesting the Paddy Power Chase at Christmas, Minella Beau always looked to be going well for Paul Townend. As the leaders emerged from the last two fences in this Galway Plate consolation race, the 4/1 favourite seemed sure to deal with the front-running Icantsay, but the latter turned in a tremendously willing display and was coming back again late on. However, the market leader hit the line with half a length to spare.

“Both times he made ground at the two fences in the dip and that was probably the difference,” reflected Mullins. “He just lost his way last winter for some reason but he was good there and he loves this ground. Maybe he’s a horse we could look at next year’s Plate with.”

TOM Mullins sent out the winner of the well-endowed €80,000 Guinness Galway Tribes Handicap Hurdle for the third year in a row but not in the order the market expected as victory went to the 20/1 shot Lucky Icon and not the trainer’s 3/1 favourite, Bercasa.

Lucky Icon and Danny Mullins on the way to winning the Guinness Galway Tribes Handicap Hurdle \ Healy Racing

The trainer’s nephew, Danny Mullins, judged things to perfection from the front on the recent Killarney winner in a race where very few runners got involved. Lucky Icon got away from the final flight much quicker than the chasing Lever Du Soleil which put the seal on a three-and-a-half-length triumph in this Galway Hurdle consolation race. For her part, Bercasa was already well held when she departed at the last.

“He won well at Killarney and we found out there the way to ride him there although I would say that he’s really after strengthening up in the last few months,” reported Mullins whose wife Helen owns this homebred. “I haven’t looked beyond today but if the right flat race came up we could certainly run him in that.”

AFTER his first 12 runners at the meeting yielded four second-place finishers, Dermot Weld got off the mark for the week with Hasanabad in the Rockshore Apple Cider Race over a mile and three-quarters. The trainer’s last four winners of this race were all short-priced favourites but this Aga Khan-owned representative was returned at 6/1 under Chris Hayes. He produced a brave front-running effort to account for Sneaky Getaway by a length and a half on his last start before he came under the hammer at Goffs UK on Wednesday.

“It was a good tactical ride from Chris. I thought he’d be hard to beat and making the running was always in my thoughts. He will make a very nice National Hunt horse,” reflected Weld. He made £230,000 at the Goffs UK Sale on Wednesday.

AFTER starting her career with a promising third to the subsequent Silver Flash heroine Love, Jessica Harrington’s Alpine Star got off the mark in style in the James’s Gate Irish EBF Median Auction Maiden. The Niarchos Family-owned Sea The Moon half-sister to the brilliant Alpha Centauri was returned the 7/4 favourite under Shane Foley.

She overcome a wide draw and brushed aside market rival Santiago in the straight for a three-and-a-quarter-length victory.

“She had a lovely first run at Leopardstown when she didn’t enjoy the clearest of runs and she’s won nicely there. It was a good race for this grade and she’s stepped forward to win well. The ground was easier than it was in Leopardstown and that’s helped her too,” reported the rider.

An industrious meeting for Aidan O’Brien and his son Donnacha continued as Invitation, who was wearing first-time blinkers, made all the running in the Guinness Irish EBF Fillies Maiden over a mile and a half. The 100/30 shot, who is a Galileo half-sister to the top-class Novellist, brushed aside the favourite Hazel Bay before the turn-in and went on to defeat the once-raced Irradiate by four and a half lengths for the Coolmore partnership.

Deserving win

Perhaps the most deserving winner of the night was the Tom Gibney-trained Imposing Supreme (6/1) in the 50-70 rated Arthur Guinness Handicap for three-year-olds over a mile . A runner-up in four of his last six outings, this gelding is owned by the trainer’s longstanding supporters Leonard Kinsella and Kevin Haigney and he took several lengths out of the field rounding the last bend before lasting home by three-quarters of a length from the staying-on Royal Canford.

This was a first festival winner as a trainer for Gibney who won Monday’s amateur riders’ handicap on Saving Bond in 1997.

DONIE McInerney picked up a two-day ban for weighing in at 1.1lbs overweight on Orgilgo Bay and Gary Halpin received the same sanction for weighing in at 1.2lbs overweight on Irradiate who finished second in the fillies’ maiden.

Billy Lee was given a two-day whip ban after partnering Lighthouse Lady into third in the fillies’ maiden.

JOCKEY Liam Quinlan was referred on the IHRB chief executive for further investigation after he was replaced by Robbie Power on the Galway Blazers runner-up Icantsay. Quinlan was reported to have become unwell that morning was wasn’t fit to ride and the stewards allowed his substitution but he was referred on as he didn’t present himself to the medical officer on duty or the clerk of the scales to be weighed out.