RACING returned to the lands of the Cunningham family as they staged the annual North Galway point-to-point on a wet and windy day in Belcare.

Donnchadh Doyle continued his red-hot form as little over half-an-hour after sending out the winner of the four-year-old maiden in Lingstown, he added the Belclare equivalent with another smart prospect.

Leading from pillar-to-post under a positive Brian Lawless, Romeo Coolio (6/4 - 8/11 favourite), a son of Kayf Tara, was a taking winner who fenced impressively throughout and dictated this race on his own terms.

A visually impressive performance from the Monbeg Syndicate-owned gelding, he barely had to come out of second gear to leave his four rivals toiling in his wake, as when challenged before two out, he quickly lengthened and so easily put the race to bed, to defeat Nowwhatdoyouthink by five lengths.

“He is a lovely smart horse who cost plenty of money, we gave €92,000 for him at the Derby sale,” Doyle said.

“His homework was very good and it was lovely for him to come here and do that. Brian was mad about him. He got a great feel off him, and he will go off to the sales now.”

Impression

The Willie Murphy-trained newcomer Followango (4/1) created a favourable impression when showing a game attitude to fend off the challenge of Fine As Wine in the five and six-year-old mares’ maiden.

Always travelling sweetly at the head of affairs this was a cosier success than the winning margin of half-a-length would suggest, as the daughter of Ocovango was only asked a serious question by Pa King after getting in close to the last, which handed a brief opportunity for the closing Fine As Wine.

“She’s a good mare to gallop and jump and loves that ground,” Murphy said. “She’s owner bred by Patrick McCarthy who joined us last September. This is his first runner and first winner. She’s a good tough mare and she got a great ride from the front.”

Fine form

The Costello family continued their fine run of form with Asian Master (3/1 - 9/2) who backed up his recent success in Bellharbour to make it two on the bounce in the winners’ of two event. Tom Costello was content to let the son of Shirocco watch on as the long-time leader War Call raced into a 30-length advantage before steadily biding his time to reel him in.

The writing was on the wall after three out for War Call when he began to feel the efforts of his early exertions, and as he was almost reduced to a walk in the home straight, that left the winner to capitalise as he moved to the front alongside Now Is The Hour.

It was the Marie Costello-owned six-year-old who got the better of those late exchanges to prevail by a neck.

“I was always happy enough; the ground is sticky enough out there today,” the winning rider said. “I felt Derek’s horse was probably my biggest danger and my lad was rallying the whole way to the line, and think even if we had to go another hundred yards my lad would have won. It’s great he might go for a winners’ of two or a bumper. We will probably hold on to him now he’s a decent horse and we will have a bit of craic.”

ALTHOUGH the adjacent maiden may have featured just two runners in a match contest, this fascinating renewal lacked little in excitement with the Gerard Kyne-trained Miss Carli Fay (8/11 favourite) finally getting her head in front to shed her long-time maiden tag under Paul O’Neill for the Kiltrogue Stud Racing Syndicate.

The daughter of Califet fended off the persistent debutant Delta Melody by one and a half lengths.

“She got a great spin and showed a bit of honesty,” Kyne stated. “She was second the last day and ran into a good well-bred mare.

“We didn’t get to work her when we wanted to because we were frozen over, we might head for a winners’ race now. She needs testing tracks, she can run on good ground, but she needs the climbs as she’s just missing a bit of toe, but she will stay and she’s tough.”

The concluding contest of the afternoon went the way of Ahaknowyerself (7/2 - 4/1) a bay son of Scorpion who finally broke his maiden tag after several promising placed efforts for owner John Carroll and trainer Andrew Slattery.

“We will try and find a winner’ of one for him, he’s had plenty of good runs but it was just starting to look like he wouldn’t get his day, but he got it today,” Slattery said.

Hens Tooth makes his Getaway

THE five and six-year-old geldings’ maiden was the subject to a lengthy stewards’ inquiry but the results remained unchanged and it was the Sam Curling-owned and trained son of Getaway, Hens Tooth (4/1 - 3/1) who saw off the challenge of Magic Sadler under Derek O’Connor.

A €90,000 store purchase, he showed nice improvement from his debut fourth at Oldtown in February and looks to be a horse who can improve even further.

“He is a lovely horse who had a lovely run the first day, he was always going to come on from it,” Curling said. “He is only coming there now but we will leave him off there now and he will be a good staying chaser.

“The track was very tight for him. He’s a lovely horse, he’s going to develop into a lovely chaser.”

Nowwhatdoyouthink (S. Curling): This bay shaped with promise on debut and potentially bumped into a well-touted prospect from Donnchadh Doyle’s all conquering stable.

A son of Mount Nelson he should not be far away again in a similar contest with improvement bound to come.