HAVING shared The Irish Field riders’ championship with Barry O’Neill last season, Rob James has certainly started his defence of that title with real intent.

A Tinahely treble last Sunday saw the 31-year-old bring his strike rate for the new campaign to an impressive 32%, with old ally Donnchadh Doyle again delivering the goods.

The Monbeg Stables operator introduced his third four-year-old maiden winner of the campaign when Show In The Sky (2/1 - 9/4 joint-favourite) turned a strongly-run second division into a procession.

With James content to bide his time, it was not until the home bend that the €33,000 store purchase was delivered with his challenge, from where he put the race to bed in a matter of strides, defeating fellow newcomer Take Chance by 11 lengths to continue the Doyle brother’s success with the off-spring of the Ballycurragh Stud-resident Snow Sky.

Sunday’s Tinahely victor was the third four-year-old maiden winner in the sphere by the former Royal Ascot winner, with his two previous victors having been trained by Doyle’s siblings Cormac and Sean.

“He is out of Voler La Vedette, and is a smart horse,” Doyle stated. “We had been very happy with him, Rob said it was a messy race, but he was good, and he is for sale now.”

Winning ride

The Wexford rider benefitted from his great friend and rival Barry O’Neill electing to ride Liam Kenny’s Ashtown Park in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden, as it resulted in him coming in for the winning ride aboard Colin Bowe’s Wild Nephin (6/4 - 5/2).

The bay had the most experience to call upon in the six-runner contest, and he made that count as the Inchydoney runner-up overhauled O’Neill’s mount, climbing from the penultimate fence before picking up in good style to inflict a five-and-a-half length defeat on the favourite.

“It was a nice spare to get, as Colin’s horses are in great form,” James acknowledged of the Milestone Bloodstock-owned winner.

“Barry took up the lead and I got a grand toe into it, and he really sprinted to the line in fairness to him. He is an improving sort of a horse, he wasn’t right last year, but he is coming into himself now.”

It was a third different handler that completed the James hat-trick as he guided Con McSweeney’s Rebel Treaty (5/2 – 3/1) to a bloodless victory in the five-runner mares’ winner-of-one contest, which saw just two finishers.

Track-placed

The ultra-consistent six-year-old had finished in the placings in seven of her 11 starts entering the race, and the twice track-placed Rebel Treaty Syndicate-owned mare further consolidated that record, when the departure of the Loughrea maiden winner Mandalay Maggie two-out, allowed her to return 31 lengths clear of Je Suis.

“She ran over fences and was placed during the summer, but just wasn’t good enough for the racecourse,” McSweeney stated.

“We said we would drop her back to this and get a bit of confidence into her. The ground will probably be gone for her now, so we will probably give her a break and come back in the spring.”

James’ bid to end the day with four wins from four rides at a rain-battered Fairwood Park was only thwarted by Er Dancer (6/4 – 5/2), a horse that he had previously ridden to land a Fairyhouse hunter chase in 2020, as the 10-year-old defeated his mount, Born By The Sea, in the open.

The two-length victory under the French-bred’s regular pilot Alan Harney completed a double on the day for Donnchadh Doyle and the Monbeg Syndicate.

“He was late coming back last season, as his passport got damaged and it took a lot of hardship to get a new one as he is a French-bred,” Doyle said.

“He is a very consistent horse and it’s great for Alan to get another winner on him. We will keep tipping away with him now.”

FEW four-year-olds could lay claim to the assured round of jumping that Purple Owl (6/4 - 3/1 joint-favourite) produced en route to landing the opening division of the four-year-old maiden.

Like many of owner Ben Halsall’s horses, the Colin Bowe-trained son of Elusive Pimpernel has a wine-themed name, and his supporters had every reason to raise a glass in celebration when the €7,500 foal purchase claimed the scalp of fellow market leader Park Talk by a length under Barry O’Neill.

“He had a nice first run, he disappointed a little the second day, but it was probably down to a bit of immaturity,” stable representative Brendan Walsh explained.

“The experience stood to him around there today. He jumped like a bunny, and Barry said he was a great ride.”

Any hopes that O’Neill and Bowe harboured of adding to their haul on the day in the two-runner mares’ maiden lasted just five fences, before their Geordie Girl jinked at the road crossing, unshipping the eight-time champion in the process.

That left Denis Murphy’s Emily Love (1/2 favourite) to complete the final two miles in splendid isolation under Jack Hendrick and add to the Ballyboy handler’s excellent record at the Wicklow venue, as she became his 12th winner there within the past two and a half years.

A FIRST Wicklow football title in 40 years for Tinahely on the previous afternoon, and challenging weather conditions resulted in only a handful of the hardiest of die-hard supporters being left to watch the concluding older maiden.

One of those onlookers was Linda Twomey, as she made the worthwhile trip from Cork to watch Bob The Builder (5/2 – 3/1), a horse that she bred out of her unraced Anshan mare Earthshan, land the spoils under Eoin Staples.

The Richie Rath-trained seven-year-old had been absent from competitive action for over a year due to a health setback that his owner, Niall Heffernan, suffered earlier in the year.

“I had been planning to go to the track with him during the summer, but my appendix burst in March, and when all that happened, I said I would leave him off to come back for this,” explained the Blackwater-based owner who had previously enjoyed big-race success at Ayr in 2018 with the Sean Doyle-trained Crosshue Boy.

“He will probably go for a winners’ race next and then he will go to the track at some point.”

Ashtown Park (L. Kenny): This €110,000 close relation to the 2015 Aintree Grand National hero Many Clouds was likely not suited by the steady pace of the race and should comfortably open his account in time.