Flying victory for Fairy Wing

ENNIS accountant, Michael Vaughan and his wife, Rose, had good reason to celebrate when their horse, Fairy Wing (4/1 joint-favourite), landed the Ladbrokes Bet In Play Handicap at Dundalk last Friday evening.
Returning to action after a 179-day break, Fairy Wing, who landed a Bellewstown handicap in facile fashion last August, was nestled at the bottom of the handicap on the nine-stone mark in this one-mile handicap and he won with a fair bit in hand.
Shane Foley’s mount, who is trained in Moone, County Kildare by Jessica Harrington, was always prominent, making full use of his light weight when forging clear in the closing stages to beat the Johnny Murtagh-ridden Aragorn Rouge by three parts of a length.
Obviously a talented sort, Fairy Wing has scope for further improvement and now that he appears to thrive on the all-weather surface at Dundalk, he is likely to reappear there in the not-too-distant future, according to his trainer. She stated, “Fairy Wing is a tough horse and we like him a lot. He came back to us in great shape after his winter break and I’m delighted with his win. He’ll go back to Dundalk next Friday week (March 9) for a similar event.”
The successful five-year-old is also set to embark on a career over hurdles, with Harrington revealing, “We have schooled Fairy Wing over hurdles and he jumps great. We are just waiting for a bit of nice ground for him and we are really looking forward to him going jumping, as we think he could be very smart.”
The folly of ante-post betting was underlined at Fairyhouse on Saturday afternoon, where the eagerly awaited hurdling debut of Dessie Hughes’ Minsk grabbed the headlines.
Fancied for the Triumph Hurdle on the back of some impressive flat performances for John Oxx, which included a decisive success in the Cesarewitch at the Curragh, Barry Connell’s charge was as low as 5/1 favourite with leading firm Paddy Power for the Cheltenham two-miler, despite the fact he had never jumped a hurdle in public.
The bubble well and truly burst at the Meath track, with 4/6 favourite Minsk failing to fire when managing only second behind Kieran Purcell’s 8/1 winner, Burrenbridge Lodge, in the opening Grade 2 Winning Fair Juvenile Hurdle.
At first glance, this appeared a poor showing but Hughes later revealed Minsk was found to be suffering from an infected throat and, having been put on a two-week course of antibiotics, Cheltenham 2012 has been ruled out.
Minsk will now return to Oxx for a flat campaign over the summer and while he may yet make his mark as a hurdler, anyone who weighed into the son of Dalakhani for the Triumph in recent months has, quite simply, done their dough.
Looking past Cheltenham, the Aintree Grand National will be the next port of call for Willie Mullins’ Prince De Beauchene, who impressed when landing the Grade 2 Bobbyjo Chase on Saturday’s Fairyhouse card.
One of a strong draft of horses sent to Mullins by top UK owner, Graham Wylie, when north of England trainer Howard Johnson was warned off, Prince De Beauchene ran a nice race on his Irish debut when fifth behind Groody Hill in the Troytown at Navan. He seemed to have come on a fair bit for that run when taking this three-mile, one-furlong event in comfortable fashion.
Sent on before the home turn by Paul Townend, 11/10 favourite Prince De Beauchene showed no signs of stopping when staying on strongly to beat 2010 Grand National runner-up Black Apalachi by six lengths.
This was Mullins’ fourth success in this particular race and it is worth remembering that he won it back in 2005 with Hedgehunter, prior to Ruby Walsh’s mount going on to Aintree glory some six weeks later.

Lee on the mark in Bandon

GORT trainer Norman Lee made the long trek to last Sunday’s Carberry Foxhounds fixture at Bandon worthwhile when saddling 8/1 shot Survivor to claim the concluding winners’ race at the Cork venue.
A good third on his previous outing at Belharbour, Survivor was ridden on this occasion by Ciarán Fennessy and the combination made virtually all the running en-route to a very impressive six-length success over the Jimmy Mangan-trained Helen Mag.
Tubber-born Lee is a son of the former trainer Christy Lee, who will forever be associated with the memorable success of Lesabelle in the 1973 Galway Hurdle. He currently has 12 horses under his wing at his state-of-the-art stables at Kilmacduagh on the outskirts of Gort.
“We went to Cork as we felt he’d like the better ground on offer there,” said a thrilled Lee, who was recently granted his licence to train for the racecourse as well.
“We’ve always thought a good bit of this horse and Ciarán (Fennessy) gave him a fantastic ride. He had a nice run in Belharbour and we knew he had come on a good bit for that outing, so we had a few quid on today, despite the fact there were quite a few fancied in the race,” admitted the winning trainer.
Looking to future plans for the victorious seven-year-old, Lee continued, “He may well go to Kilworth next Sunday for a winners-of-two event and we’ll look at a Hunter’s Chase somewhere for him after that”.
Meanwhile, Derek O’Connor is not the only high-profile amateur who will be sitting out the upcoming Cheltenham Festival, following the news earlier this week that Jamie Codd is also set to miss the big Cotswolds meeting.
Codd suffered a broken leg when he shipped a crashing fall at Kilsheelan back in the autumn but he did return to action when riding a double at the Ballydarragh fixture on the first Sunday in February. The Wexford rider was in the saddle at both Kirkistown and Punchestown the following weekend but he felt something was just not right and stood himself down.
It has since emerged that he may well have come back too soon and he is currently back on the sidelines for an unspecified time as he bids to regain full fitness.