Derek O’Connor’s status as one of the top amateurs in Ireland was further underlined when the Tubber rider bagged two winners at last week’s Galway Festival.

The 29-year-old, who has dominated the sport of racing between the flags over the past decade, secured his ninth consecutive champion point-to-point riders’ crown when the 2011/12 season drew to a close in June but he is very polished rider in any sphere, as he displayed at Ballybrit, much to the delight of his large band of followers.
While O’Connor had to settle for the runner-up berth aboard Jim Culloty’s Cry For The Moon in the big amateur handicap on the opening evening, he made no mistake when teaming up with Patrickswell trainer Michael Hourgian to land Thursday’s concluding bumper aboard 8-1 shot Gate Please.
Owned by the Storey’s Over Syndicate that includes Ennis businessmen Sean Moran and Christy Guerin, Gate Please, who won a Ballingarry point-to-point under O’Connor back in 2011 when trained by Liam Burke, went into this contest having run very well when fourth in a Roscommon bumper back in May.
The ground all week at Galway was stamina-sapping and O’Connor sensibly took his time aboard Gate Please, anchoring the son of Rashar towards the rear in this two-mile, two-furlong contest.
Heading towards the home turn, Gate Please was noted making good headway on the wide outside and, with no doubts about him seeing out the trip, O’Connor drove his mount up the final hill to record a fully deserved seven-length victory over runner-up Moorhill Lad.
Winning trainer Hourigan, who also handles that great money-spinner A New Story for the successful syndicate, reported, “Gate Please is a good horse. He has taken time to come to himself but I like him a lot. He was a shade unlucky not to win the last day at Roscommon and he was twice the horse today that he was there. He’ll make a very smart chaser in time.”
If O’Connor was good aboard Gate Please, he was brilliant when taking the final race of the 2012 Festival, the Fr Sean Breen Memorial Flat Race aboard shock 20-1 winner Another Charm.
Trained in Dungarvan, County Waterford by John Kiely, this daughter of Beneficial nearly pulled O’Connor’s arms out in the early stages of this two-mile winners’ contest.
Nevertheless, the five-year-old obviously has a big engine and with O’Connor doing what he does best when producing her full of running around the home bend, she found plenty when it mattered most when coming with a wet sail inside the final furlong to beat the well-backed Patrick Mullins-ridden 8-11 favourite Tasitiocht by half a length.
Winning trainer Kiely, who has been a staunch supporter of O’Connor over the years, remarked, “Derek was brilliant there, as this filly is very tricky and is definitely a man’s ride. She does have loads of ability though and is a half-sister to Irish Grand National winner The Bunny Boiler. She did have one run over hurdles at Wexford in June, where she did her best to knock herself. I’m not sure where we’ll go with her next but she’s a smashing broodmare prospect in time.”

Close call for Rebel Fitz

Last Thursday’s Guinness Galway Hurdle was the richest run in Ireland this year and it produced a fitting result with the well-fancied Rebel Fitz giving his Kanturk, County Cork trainer Michael Winters his biggest success to-date.
Owned by London-based, Cork-born banker Brian Sweetnam, whose wife, Sheila, hails from North Clare, Rebel Fitz went into last week’s race on the back of a very good effort when landing the Grimes Hurdle at Tipperary 11 days earlier, which earned him a 6lb penalty, leaving him with 11st 5lb on his back.
Having travelled supremely well under Davy Russell during the race, Rebel Fitz hit the front at the final flight and looked set for an easy victory.
Russell was keeping tabs on what was happening in behind on the big screen on his right hand side and thought he had the race aboard the 11-2 joint-favourite in the bag as he sat-up to salute the crowd on the approach to the line.
What he had failed to see, however, was the Davy Condon-ridden Cause Of Causes flashing home on his left-hand side with the line just coming in time for Rebel Fitz, who held on to win a fast-diminishing head.
In fairness to Russell, who was as white as a sheet while he waited for the official result to be called, he admitted his error and it is unlikely that he’ll be in a hurry to repeat those heart-stopping antics any time soon.
For the connections of Rebel Fitz it was a memorable day. The scenes that greeted his win were reminiscent of the good old days as Winters was carried shoulder high around the winner’s enclosure by an army of well-wishers.
When he finally regained his composure, Winters said, “I thought we were beaten on the line and it was a big relief when his number was called first.
“We really enjoyed the build-up to the race and the owners were fantastic, they were just so thrilled to have a horse good enough to run in the Galway Hurdle.”
Winning jockey Russell was securing his second win in the race, having steered Farmer Brown to victory for Pat Hughes back in 2007. He said, “Rebel Fitz’s jumping is his biggest asset and once he got into a nice rhythm, he was always going to be hard to beat. I deserved a kick up the arse for what I did at the end and I very nearly learned a harsh lesson.”
Wednesday’s www.thetote.com Galway Plate went to the JP McManus-owned 16-1 chance, Bob Lingo.
Capably ridden by Mark Walsh, this Tom Mullins-trained 16-1 shot came with a well-timed challenge when tackling long-time leader Casey Top a furlong down before pulling clear to beat that rival by five lengths.
The victory of Bob Lingo continues an amazing run for the Mullins family in the Galway Plate, as his trainer Tom has now joined his brothers Willie and Tony and his late father Paddy on the roll of honour of those that have trained the winner of this historic race.

Weld top trainer with McNamara top jump ­jockey

Not surprisingly, Dermot Weld was crowned leading trainer at Galway last week, with a final tally of nine winners.
The master of Rosewell House kicked off the meeting with an opening evening hat-trick but a huge deterioration in ground conditions meant that a lot of his runners were competing on unsuitable ground.
Nevertheless, nine winners (seven of which were on the flat) is a fine tally and his stable jockey Pat Smullen excelled as he picked up the flat jockeys’ award.
Over the jumps, Limerick rider Andrew McNamara, who was on the cold list going into the meeting, enjoyed a welcome change of fortune when landing the jump jockeys’ title, with three wins from just 12 rides.
While hopes were high that conditions for Galway 2012 would improve, the recent run of bad weather continued right throughout the week and this had a major impact on attendances and betting.
Wind and rain lashed the enclosures on several days and this definitely kept a good number of people away, with the flagship Ladies Day on Thursday attracting the biggest daily attendance of just over 37,000 fans.
The total number of patrons to pass through the turnstiles at Ballybrit over the seven days was 132, 315, down over 15,000 on last year.
Bookmakers’ takings were also down significantly, with the layers handling €8,700, 318 over the week, a deficit of €3m from 2011.
The Tote fared a bit better, recording a drop of €626,000, having put €4,376, 626 through the machine during the weeklong meeting.
Galway manager John Moloney and his entire staff deserve great credit for the way they coped with what a very trying week at the popular western venue and, while the elements made life uncomfortable, it was still a fantastic week’s racing.