LAST March, Matty Flynn O’Connor and Joey Logan combined successfully, when the now Grade 1-winner Final Demand made a victorious start to his career at Lingstown.
Flash forward 11 months and, with that son of Walk In The Park currently heading the ante-post markets for next month’s Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, the pair were back among the winners in the pointing sphere with another impressive debutant in Heldam (6/4 – evens favourite).
As the sole six-figure sales purchase in the lineup for the four-year-old maiden, his connections were clearly confident in their €110,000 investment.
Having been the subject of market support before the off, he justified their faith, when accounting for Pat Doyle’s Lord Rouge by two lengths, becoming the first son of Doctor Dino to win a four-year-old maiden in the pointing sphere on these shores in the process.
“He has a nice pedigree. My father, Brian Lawless and Joey Logan spent a lot of money on him at the Derby sale, but we have loved him from day one,” the Wexford handler said of the gelding, who ran in the colours of his sister, Abbie.
“He has done everything right since we have had him, and we knew coming here that we had one with a live chance. The right people knew about him coming here and he got it done.”
Eye-catching
Thirty minutes later, the scattering of racegoers present witnessed another eye-catching victor when Park Blue (5/2 – 2/1 joint-favourite) fended off his 10 rivals in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden.
Jamie Scallan was back sporting the more familiar silks of Sean Doyle’s Monbeg Partnership aboard the Walk In The Park gelding.
The €62,000 purchase took advantage of his always-prominent position to deny Patrick Mullins and Cause For Comment by four lengths, on what was a first appearance for the 15-time champion track amateur in the pointing sphere, since he had also filled that runners-up position over four years earlier.
“He was unlucky the last day, he kind of slipped on the bend and unseated Jamie,” Doyle said of the five-year-old’s debut effort at Ballindenisk in December.
“He is a big horse, with a big engine and he did that very well. He is bred by Frank Motherway, so he has a massive pedigree, and I think you could see this lad turning into a very nice staying chaser.”
300 winners
Doyle’s brother Donnchadh added further cause for celebration for the Monbeg-based family, when he registered the 300th winner of his career within the pointing domain, courtesy of Pappariche (2/5 – 1/2 favourite) in the mares’ maiden.
Forced to dig deeper than had initially looked likely when James Walsh sent the €40,000 close relation of the Grade 1-winner Massini’s Maguire to the front off the home bend. By the line, only a head separated her from an improved Dalcassian Girl.
“It is great to get the 300th winner,” Doyle said following the four-runner contest.
“James said she didn’t like the ground, but she is a nice mare and jumps well. Her homework had been good, so we hoped she would do that, but I hoped there would have been a few more in the race.”
HOLLY Dunne admitted to being buzzing as the Portlaoise native made a winning return to action with her great ally Plan Of Attack (3/1) in the novice rider’s open.
The 21-year-old had gained her first success in the saddle aboard the formerly 140-rated son of Court Cave at Tinahely in February 2024, when he was trained by Ben Halsall, but she had been absent from competitive action in this sphere since then.
With Plan Of Attack having returned to Henry de Bromhead’s care, for whom he had won four times under rules, whilst still in Halsall’s ownership, the pair were reunited as they defeated Dromleigh by six lengths in a race that had seen the odds-on favourite Boss Robin depart at just the second obstacle.
“It was some buzz going around there,” declared Dunne, who works full-time at de Bromhead’s Knockeen base. “He knows his job, he is 12 now and I’m buzzing to be back with a winner. I’m glad to get a spin and a winner for Henry.”
Popular Tipperary hotelier John Nallen also visited the winner’s enclosure for the first time this season, when his Adam Feeney-ridden Minella Mission (5/2 – 3/1 co-favourite) stepped forward from a narrow defeat at Dungarvan three weeks earlier, to defeat Arkhill by a length and a half in the older geldings’ maiden.
FOUNTAIN HOUSE (5/4 – 7/4 favourite) only found one rival too good at last year’s Punchestown festival, and a return to the Kildare venue’s marquee spring festival looks to be back on the agenda for Ian McCarthy’s charge, after he came through the Farmers hunt race with a near-faultless display.
Consistently out-jumping his chief rival, Gale Force Jet, it was only after making his one and only semblance of an error at the penultimate fence that a confident Eoin Mahon allowed him to stride on in a move, which swiftly wrapped up a fourth victory of the season for the Lucky Speed gelding.
Having shown his prowess over natural obstacles at Lingstown in the autumn, the Kildangan-based McCarthy admitted to having a host of options open to him.
“It is gas the amount of options that you have with a horse like this,” he said of the seven-year-old, who ran in his wife Nikki’s colours.
“We could go to Thurles for the maiden hunter chase, we could go to Lingstown, there are plenty of options, but our main target is to get back here.”
Horse to Follow
Arkhill (R. O’Sullivan): The newcomer travelled all over his rivals on debut to strike the front approaching the final fence. However, cruelly for his supporters, it was at this obstacle that he produced his one and only mistake, an error that saw him swiftly surrender the lead. Compensation should be swiftly attained.