Bishopsland Wednesday (June 29th)

LIMERICK-based Richard Phelan made the midweek journey down from the Treaty City to Bishopsland to record a double on Wednesday, June 29th.

Well Cuz who broke his maiden tag at Lyre to set the ball rolling for Phelan in the opening Grade G pace. This son of Well Said was sent to the front at the start and stayed on well to beat Spartan warrior by two lengths .The winner is syndicated to Phelan, Anthony O’Donnell and Clare owner Pa Crawford.

Pan Cam Income gave Phelan his second winner of the night in the Grade F Pace. Once again Phelan employed front-running tactics, sending this son of Earned Income to the front after the start and was too good on the night for Churchview Kolt. Three lengths was the winning margin. The winner was recently purchased by Anthony O’Donnell, a cousin of James O’Donnell, who is a successful trainer in Yonkers Raceway, New York. No doubt the exiled “Yank” sent some tips back home.

Blue Showdown cemented his ever-growing reputation as one of Ireland’s leading pacers when landing the spoils in the B to E pace off a 30-yard trail. On Top Big C, Ayr Majesty and Showtime Notorious all led at various stages of the mile contest. Heading into the final two furlongs all five pacers were tightly bunched but Blue Showdown was waiting in the wings and swooped the field with consummate ease to run out an easy three-length winner with Showtime Notorious in second.

Multiple champion Donal Murphy is having a stop-start season but the Baltimore-based driver always gets a great tune out of the veteran Banderillo Piya. The pair kicked on early to beat Empereur Souverian by three lengths. The winner is jointly owned by IB Stables and Aiden Hayes from Leap.

Duccio gained a well overdue success in the A to D trot. Dan O’Mahony drew pole position and wasn’t waiting around for his three rivals on an evening where it paid to be up with the van. The consistent son of Naher De Baval put in a clear round of trotting and had a bit to spare over staying on favourite Comete Des Landes. The winner is trained in Dunmanway by Dan’s father Jeremiah.

The Grade E and F Pace was billed as the meeting of recent winners Share A Smile and Rodney Camden; however they both failed to fire. At the business end it was Get Me Out Of Here who led home IB Felicity. The winner is owned by Tadhg O’Reilly whose family from Drimoleague are involved in the sport for many years. The win provided an unusual winner’s photograph with four generations in the frame.

The Bishopsland Track was in prime condition on the night thanks to land owner Derry McCarthy.

The next action in Cork is at Lyre tomorrow with a 2.30pm start time. Annaghmore (Junction 13 M1) stage a fixture today.

Full results and further details can be viewed at www.irishharnessracing.com

JR drives home a Portmarnock treble

Portmarnock Sunday

JOHN Richardson seems determined to bring The Irish Field silver salver for leading driver back to Swords after losing out to Patrick Kane junior last season. JR’s case is helped by the fact that Patrick is still having the odd tilt in England the odd weekend, much to the chagrin of the English bookies.

Last weekend’s meeting at Portmarnock was very quiet as it fell a week after the Premium meeting at Annaghmore and also clashed with Tregaron (Wales).

John clocked up a treble on the day, with two trotters and a pacer. MB King Louis (4/7 fav) has been oddly named ‘MB’ instead of the usual ‘Meadowbranch ‘ but he who pays the fiddler… John did not sit in behind horses that were hitching and hopping and sent the son of Sweet Lou to the front early for a win in 2’02 in the maiden pace.

The winner is out of Meadowbranch Queen,who in turn is out of Churchill Queen, the closest thing that harness racing has to a ‘Blue Hen’ mare. MB King Louis will probably be aimed at a low-grade contest in Lyre in August.

Dusty Jiel’s aiming days are over, as are Coreo Fligny’s, as with these aged trotters every sound step is a bonus and you take what’s on the table. Dusty Jiel, as on a few occasions before, gave his backers some anxious moments as he was a bit rough gaited in the A to B trot.

John’s second cousin Aidan Caffrey has done a great job reinvigorating Coreo Fligny (2/1). Aidan got the training credit for the final leg of JR’s treble in the D to E trot.

Two of the usual bookies were absent on the day, one due to ill health, the other at a wedding. The wedding cake will have gone down nicely since the layers missed a dirty result as Newtown Major was punted from evens to 1/2. Marcus McAleer, the winning driver, had a smile as wide as the bridge of a sulky.

An official 1’59.8 is a nice clock by Newtown Major with John Boy Roche in second aboard the genuine One Cool Touch.

We send best wishes for an early recovery to veteran Drogheda layer Maxie Collins.

Sean Kane made up a lot of ground with Chipie Des Landes to mug Joe Sheridan’s Hidden Love on the line. A length was the margin over Urbano Des Selles (Oisin Quill) as Billy Roche was suspended.

Immaculata looked to be a wonder filly at three, but at four she has started galloping. As often stated in this column, when a decent one breaks they can be hard to settle whereas an old rogue can get back down seamlessly. Immaculata continues to frustrate both her backers and trainer/driver John Richardson.

The winner Iron Paddy has been steadily improving at four and gave Ronan Norton the perfect Sunday afternoon drive. It’s A Deal (Joe Caffrey) did his best, but the bird had flown.

Yet another cousin with Richardson on his ‘page’ is Noel Ryan. Noely loves a dependable pacer and North To Alaska is in the mould of Daves Alibi and Reincheck in that he turns up every week. North To Alaska will not win when the big guns are in town, but you would back him every time there’s a sub-standard high-grade pace. The son of Kikicolt was backed in to 4/5 and duly obliged.

“KEEP yourself in the best company and your horses in the worst possible company,” is an often-repeated adage. Gavin Murdock gave both I’m Great Hanover and Stars And Stripes a few educational runs before he sent them to the billiard flat field at Tregaron, Ceredigion last weekend.

The former is owned by Dubliner Robert Barry while the latter is owned by the Timmons brothers of Wolverhampton. Needless to say both were backed like defeat was out of the question and driven accordingly.

Patrick Kane junior was in the bike on both horses as Gavin continues to nurse an ankle injury.

The number of bookies at the meeting has fallen from eighteen to only five straight and four without.

If the Murdock yard keep up their recent good run then bookmakers will officially be an endangered species.