Bosses Nephew wins for Brassil

Newmarket-on-Fergus trainer John Brassil was on the mark at last week’s Limerick Christmas Racing Festival when his 8-1 shot The Bosses Nephew ran out a good winner of Thursday’s Family Funday at LRC Veterans Handicap Chase.
Third in a point-to-point earlier this season, the son of Flemensfirth jumped superbly all through and, having hit the front three out, the 10-year-old powered away under up-and-coming jockey, Eddie O’Connell, to beat runner-up, Doctor Woodfield by five lengths.
Brassil, who has enjoyed a long and successful association with The Bosses Nephew’s Castletownroche, County Cork owner, Edward Farrell, reported, “I had this horse in an open lightweight at Dromahane on New Year’s Eve but I said we’d come here instead as he loves this place and never runs a bad race here. Eddie (O’Connell) gave him a great ride; we’ll have to look for something similar somewhere for him now.”
The Limerick festival was a huge success, with good crowds turning up each day at the Greenmount Park venue.
Action on track was quite entertaining, with some good horses competing and Liam Burke’s My Murphy looks an animal with a bright future following his shock 16-1 success in the featured race on Wednesday, the Grade 3 Doran’s Pride Novice Hurdle.
Noel Meade’s Please Talk (9-10f) was a warm order here to score under Paul Carberry but he just couldn’t raise his game in the closing stages as Shay Barry conjured up a late run from My Murphy, who ran on doggedly on the far rail to beat the favourite by three and three quarters of a length. 
Bookmakers were feeling the pinch following Wednesday’s Friends of Limerick Racecourse Maiden Hurdle, where the James Dullea-trained Dog Barrell Hill landed a tidy gamble.
Backed from 6-1 into 7-2, the son of Anshan, who won two point-to-points (including a winners’ race at Killaloe) last season for his Cork-born owner, Pat Lynch, who is currently master of the County Clare Hunt, poked his head in front before the home turn and Andrew McNamara’s mount had enough in reserve to hold the determined challenge of the Derek O’Connor-ridden Castlerock Rose by four lengths.
Thursday’s feature was the €12,000 Student Raceday 29th March Mares’ Beginners’ Chase, with victory here going to odds-on favourite, Askanna.
Trained in Co Wexford by Colin Bowe and ridden by his stable amateur, Bon O’Neill, Askanna (4-5f) looked a standout wager here and the Old Vic mare duly obliged when passing the post half a length to the good over Michael Hourigan’s runner-up, False Messenger.

Lexus Joy for McCoy and O’Neill

Any notion that we had a horse good enough to enter calculations for the 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup were well and truly dispelled in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown last week.
By any standards, the 2011 renewal wasn’t the strongest heat ever run at the Foxrock track and this was pretty much borne out as UK raider, Synchronised scored at odds of 8-1 for leading owner, JP McManus and Jackdaw’s Castle trainer, Jonjo O’Neill.
Essentially a good handicapper, Synchronised won the 2010 Welsh Grand National under McCoy and was expected to return to Chepstow to bid for back-to-back victories in that race.
O’Neill decided, however, to re-route his charge to Leopardstown and his decision proved spot-on as the 10-year-old landed both a valuable pot and slick gamble in the process.
Quoted as high as 20-1 in places on the morning of the race, Synchronised went off a well-trimmed 8-1 chance and benefited from a brilliant McCoy ride.
Ruby Walsh cut out the gallop in this three-miler aboard Paul Nicholls’ Noland, with McCoy scraping the paint off the rails on the inner as he kept in touch of the leaders.
Squaring up to the second last, Rubi Light had edged to the front with favourite Quito De La Roque in his slipstream.
All the while, McCoy was working his way into contention on the far rail and he set his mount alight on the run to the last before drawing right away on the run-in to beat Rubi Light by eight lengths. Quito De La Roque stayed on for third, with 25-1 outsider Roberta Goldback in fourth.
While Synchronized is a good horse on his day, he’s hardly up to winning a Gold Cup and, with him having put the best of the home team to the sword in such fashion, connections of Kauto Star and Long Run will not be losing any sleep over the form of this race.   
The Gigginstown House colours of Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary are becoming increasingly dominant in Irish racing and his maroon and white silks were carried to success in the Topaz Fort Leney Novice Chase by the mightily impressive 11-4 chance Last Instalment.
Trained by Philip Fenton, Last Instalment is a real old-fashioned stamp of a chaser, who jumped superbly en-route to a clear cut six-length success over another Gigginstown runner, 7-4 favourite, First Lieutenant.
The winner, who landed a point-to-point at Lemonfield in 2010, is a cracking horse and, if everything goes his way in the meantime, he could well be a future Gold Cup winner.
Another Gigginstown animal to go into the notebook over the four days at Leopardstown was Make Your Mark.
A bumper winner at Punchestown on his debut for Willie Mullins six weeks earlier (he bagged a point-to-point at Lisronagh back in April for Ger Hourigan), Make Your Mark certainly did just that when sluicing to victory in the opening maiden hurdle on the Wednesday, where he led his 16 rivals a merry dance when passing the post 10 lengths in front of Competitive Edge. The winner is high class and could yet develop into a major contender for one of the novice hurdles at Cheltenham in just over nine weeks’ time. 
Colm Murphy enjoyed a great spell over Christmas and the Gorey handler was on the mark in the Woodies DIY.com Christmas Hurdle, where his classy mare Voler La Vedette (13-8) impressed.
Andrew Lynch took the mount aboard this daughter of King’s Theatre, who upset Willie Mullins’ 4-5 favourite Mourad when running on too strongly for that rival in the closing stages to score by four-and-three-quarter lengths.
Reigning Champion hurdler, Hurricane Fly was a notable absentee for the final day’s highlight, the €85,000 Istabraq Festival Hurdle, last Thursday but Willie Mullins was felt to have a more than adequate deputy in the Ruby Walsh-ridden A Thousand Stars.
A model of consistency, A Thousand Stars went off the well-backed evens favourite to claim this Grade1 two-miler but at the business end the market leader had no answer to Dermot Weld’s high-class mare, Unaccompanied, who quickened up in ready fashion under Paul Townend to record a cosy one-and-a-half-length victory over the slightly disappointing favourite.
Unaccompanied will return to the South Dublin track at the end of this month for a crack at the BHP Insurance Irish Champion Hurdle before a final decision will be made concerning her Cheltenham Festival participation.

O’Connor back in winning groove

Champion jockey, Derek O’Connor picked up where he left off when riding two winners as the 2011-12 point-to-point season resumed at Dromahane on New Year’s Eve.
The well-appointed North Cork venue has been a very happy hunting ground for the Tubber rider over the years and he paid his first visit of the afternoon to the winner’s enclosure when guiding Eugene O’Sullivan’s Milan-sired mare, Lady Milano (1-1f) to victory in the four-year-old mares’ maiden.
O’Sullivan’s nearby Lombardstown yard was the first place O’Connor joined when setting out on the road to becoming a jockey some 14 years ago and he will be especially pleased as he gave this well-backed market leader a very good front-running ride when making most to beat Wexford raider, More Talk by two lengths.
Later in the afternoon, O’Connor joined forces with another of his main supporters, Kinsale trainer, Robert Tyner, as he forced Tyner’s strongly supported Footy Facts (2-1 to 5-4) up in the shadows of the post to claim an unlikely success.
Last season’s top hunter chaser, Salsify, looked sure to score when edging into a clear lead at the final fence under Colman Sweeney but, with the leader beginning to tie-up on the run-in, O’Connor railed his mount, who stuck his head in front in the dying strides to score by a head.
The first action of the new year was at Leadington in East Cork last Sunday, where award-winning O’Connor took his seasonal tally to 33 when landing the concluding seven-year-old and upwards maiden aboard 5-1 shot, Harpor.
Trained in Waterford by Sean Aherne, Harpor was dropped out in the early stages of this 17-runner contest before making up steady ground to mount a challenge on the run to the penultimate fence. Once safely over, the seven-year-old by Marignan only had to be kept up to his work to see off runner-up Fishers Star by a comfortable eight lengths.