Goffs Thyestes Chase

ON a glorious January afternoon where a large crowd packed into Gowran Park in a hark back to pre-Covid times, Lonesome Poet lit up one of the great days in the Irish National Hunt calendar as he gave Martin Brassil a second success in the Goffs Thyestes Chase.

Not since he won the race with Numbersixvalverde in 2005 had Brassil saddled a runner in this great handicap, so his decision to send Longhouse Poet into battle for this €100,000 prize looked significant.

On just his second run in the last 12 months, the Sean and Bernardine Mulryan-owned Longhouse Poet never missed a beat.

After emerging as a major fancy for the race earlier this week, the gelding was returned an easy to back 9/1 chance having been 5/1 earlier in the day but those that placed their faith in the son of Yeats and Darragh O’Keeffe hardly had a moment’s worry.

Victory

From the moment the tapes went up, Longhouse Poet was nicely placed and he was right there turning for home as a thinned out field left around half a dozen horses with a realistic shot at victory.

One of those was last season’s Grade 1-winning novice Franco De Port and was soon apparent that he and fellow second-season chaser Longhouse Poet would have the outcome to themselves. The pair were almost inseparable from two out and nearing the last it seemed as though Franco De Port possibly had momentum on his side.

Longhouse Poet had considerable reserves to call upon and when asked for his all by O’Keeffe on the run-in, he responded in gritty and determined fashion to score by three-quarters of a length.

The locally trained Mister Fogpatches ran a tremendous race for Pat Fahy to secure third ahead of Diol Ker.

Just a second ride in the race for O’Keeffe, Longhouse Poet warmed up for this with a seventh in the Tim Duggan at Limerick over Christmas. His previous effort which saw him defeat Run Wild Fred and The Big Dog in a beginners’ chase at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve 2020 pointed to his capacity to run a big race and in his days as a novice hurdler he was placed twice at Grade 1 level.

Historic

“It’s lovely to win this race again. It’s such a historic race that’s been won by some great horses and hopefully he can go on from here. I always thought that he’d appreciate heavier ground than that but it’s nice ground and he bounced off it, got a good start and jumped great,” reflected Brassil.

Breather

“Darragh said he never missed a beat. He was always in a nice position and Darragh was able to keep taking him back and get a breather into him.

“He will get an entry in the Grand National which closes on Monday and we’ll look at the Irish Grand National with him too,” concluded Brassil whose 13-winner haul for the season is the best tally of his training career.