APPRECIATING the uphill finish, the Harry Smyth-trained Willyouwalkwithme landed the extended two-mile, one-furlong handicap hurdle at Sligo on Wednesday evening.

Denis O’Regan was on board the seven-year-old Morozov gelding whose previous wins had both been at Downpatrick – under Dylan Johnston in June 2021 and under Shane Fitzgerald last September.

The bay was bred by Kieran Magee out of the unraced Winged Love mare Scent With Love who comes from the family of Hilltopper, Tarthistle and Croco Bay.

Lupini winner

Natalia Lupini’s good season continued on Monday at Dundalk where the Cormac O’Flynn-owned Lecale’s Destiny won on the third time of asking in the seven-furlong Bar One Racing Bet On Mobile Apprentice Maiden under Danny Gilligan.

An eye-catching second on his debut in a seven-furlong maiden for three-year-olds at Gowran Park in May, the Mehmas gelding was bred in Downpatrick by Patrick Turley out of the Naaqoos mare Destiny’s Kitten whose two-year-old, Dontspoilasale (by Kuroshio), won a nursery at Naas at the start of this month for the Lupini yard.

Across the water

On the same afternoon, but across the water at Catterick, Oisin Orr partnered the Richard Fahey-trained Absolute Dream to victory in division two of the seven-furlong handicap.

This was a seventh win, and the second under Orr, for the six-year-old Dream Ahead gelding who was bred at The Meadowlands Stud in Downpatrick by Brian and Ann Marie Kennedy out of the winning Monsieur Bond mare Absolute Diamond, an own-sister to Move In Time whose 11 wins were headlined by success in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

On Wednesday, England-based Co Antrim-born trainer Neil Mulholland sent out his father Brian’s Translink to land the two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle at Worcester where the seven-year-old Rail Link gelding was ridden by Richie McLernon.

Three days earlier, Neil trained yet another winner at Les Landes when the Mark Quinlan-partnered Princess T, a similarly aged Aussie Rules mare, justified favouritism in the Jersey Oaks over a mile and two.