Annaghmore Sunday

THE penultimate harness racing meeting of 2024 belonged to 21-year-old Luke Timlin from Derrylin. The Fermanagh man drove a double with the promising four-year-old pacer Greentree Candyman and old faithful trotter Epsom de Corvees, now 10.

Harness racing is essentially a summer sport. The meeting went ahead despite the best efforts of Storm Ashley. Credit to the hardy stewards and commentator who faced the brunt of the elements in their judges’ box, which is mounted on a gantry some 50 feet high.

The days of ‘shorts and shades’ at Lyre and Appleby seem like years ago. By contrast, rain turns the quarry dust into a light cement-like substance which can get into any crevice of harness, horse or driver.

On a more cheerful note, there were some stellar performances on the track. Work commitments meant that Darren Timlin’s horses started training very late in the season. Epsom de Corvees showed a great burst of speed to win the Grade D to F trot with Darren’s son Luke in the bike.

Of the draft of 2014 foals only Empereur Souverain and ‘Epsom’ remain racing. Ella Lou Lou has been a successful broodmare, while Epsom d’Occagnes, Europeen and El Tejar have long since hung up their boots.

As readers may have deduced, the French name each year’s crop of foals with the same letter of the alphabet.

“Epsom is very talented and easy to do – he’s the family pet,” said Darren Timlin, who is a farrier by day. Not many horses win drawn 9 on a half-mile track.

Double up

Luke’s double commenced when he took out the Grade G pace with Greentree Candyman (4/5 to evens) Luke sub-lets a block of stables in the Gavin Murdock barn and beat the Murdock-trained second favourite Bonnies Eclipse, owned by Clive Richardson, in 2.08.5

“He’s a fast horse – just big and green,” commented Luke. It sounds like Greentree Candyman will improve at five.

The bookies got a good old-fashioned result in the Future Broodmares Pace. A fortnight ago, we reported that a horse breaking a hobble was a one-in-a thousand outcome. Similarly, the favourite and second favourite ‘hooking wheels’ is a freak occurrence, yet that fate befell Battle Fever (4/5) and I’m Great Hanover (5/4) driven by Patrick Kane jnr and Luke Timlin, respectively.

Outsiders

Their collision threw the race to the outsiders with EJ’s Dragoness and For A Few Pearls More both looking the likely winner at stages. Eventually Jimmy Stewart got a crafty run up the inside to take the spoils with Letsgettoit (5/1). The €1,060 contest was the fifth win of the year for the daughter of Katie Jasper.

Harry Knows is trotting out of his skin on home soil. The poster boy of the IHRA/Le TROT breeding programme won his sixth race in Ireland during 2024 as he and Patrick Kane made short work of a 60-yard handicap to win the top -grade trot. The win brought up another double for Patrick.

Not to be outdone, Patrick’s brother Mark gave newcomer Kepi De Chrismi (5/1) a patient drive to reel in Fleche Extreme in the Grade F trot of €3,700.

Bequest repaid the Murphys’ decision to leave him at a hard track when he won his fourth race of 2024 for trainer/driver Kieran Morrison, a Grade E and F affair. Crack A Smile (David Curtin) put in a big run to be second from the ’10 hole’ The race pulled up in 2.04.5

Donal Murphy will be off to Lexington shortly to help Bill Donovan pick some yearlings. No doubt they will linger on the offspring of Bill’s great racehorse Cattlewash.

Jonny Cowden will be disappointed to be only second in the drivers’ championship. All the same, he provided some great moments in 2024.

There can be few more daunting sights in the sport than if you are on the leader and can see Jonny’s small frame hunched in the sulky and full of running. The Glengormley man won the Ayr Standardbreds Pace with Always Skye for trainer Lawrence Stewart.

Jonny ‘Be Good’ got his double when Emil Paco cosily won the C to E trot. Winning trainer Noel Cowden said of Emil Paco, “He has been a great servant and is always there or thereabouts - he’d have won a few more but for bad luck in running on a few occasions.”

Market got it right

The betting public found it hard to separate Juvenile (Bernard Nicholson) and Inspire Me (Ronan Norton) in the Future Broodmares Trot of €5,333. At one stage they were ‘2/1 your pick’. Wouldn’t you know, the market got it right as the newcomer and the Cork-reared mare produced the first dead-heat of the year.

The fields for the two- and three-year-old Derby and Futurity cut up badly. IHRA chairman Mark Flanagan is adamant that the juvenile races will be better filled in 2025.

For the record, two-year-old colt Oakwood Dezzie (Oisin Quill) took a handsome amount back to Kerry. Maid Sweet (Patrick Kane jnr) beat one rival in the four-year-old mares’ division. Sources reported that she has been sold to race in the US.

Bobby Barry’s Ayr Corleone was also reported to be America-bound. He trounced Rhyds Shady Affair in the four-year-old geldings’ race. Gavin Murdock did the steering.

Billy Roche also had essentially a training spin with Churchview Meow in the two-year-old fillies’.

Fun In The Sun (Gavin Murdock) beat the gutsy Always B Puffing (Billy Roche) in the ‘Oaks’. Several races were sponsored by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine/Horse Sport Ireland and it is obviously nice to see this code of racing getting some support.

Oakwood Mick completed an unusual transatlantic double for Tyrone-based owner Ruairi McNulty. His Oakwood Paddy won at Mohegan/ Pocono Downs in Pennsylavania on Saturday night in 1.49.2 while his half-brother Oakwood Mick easily won the ‘Derby’ in a time of 2.04 at our subject meeting.

Bernard Nicholson gets on well with Little Miss Sarah. The pair survived a brief wobble at the start to beat Joe Sheridan’s Logan Springhill in the Three-Year-Old Trotters race for trainer Sean Kane.

Racing continues tomorrow, normally 1pm start at Annaghmore Raceway (Junction 13 M1) or eight miles west of Richhill. Full results and racecards at irishharnessracing.com and replays can be watched on IHRA’s Facebook page.



TOMORROW’s Annaghmore card is a sparse one as many of the runners went out on a high last week, Also, a sizeable delegation of Irish trotting followers is at ‘The Big M’ (The Meadowlands in New Jersey) to watch the Breeders’ Crown (est. 1984) which is the end-of-season highlight in North America.

A total of $7 million of purses is up for grabs across all divisions over Friday 25th and Saturday 26th. The Irish delegation even has its own runner to cheer on as Robbie Cleary from Ballydehob (now based in New Jersey) trains Makes Sense in the two-year old colts’ division on the Friday night.

Ruairi McNulty recently bought into the son of Papi Rob Hanover along with Robbie himself, Eric Cherry and Odds-On Racing Inc.

Breederscrown.com will point you to the live stream with the venue five hours behind Irish time.