SAM Ewing’s versatility as a jockey was confirmed in the period under review as he was among the winners on both the flat and over jumps.

At Dundalk last Friday afternoon, Ewing hit the front inside the last to land the extended 10-furlong claiming race on the James McAuley-trained Hightown Heights.

At Naas on Sunday, he made all the running to win the near two-mile handicap hurdle with Matthew Smith’s charge, Bigz Belief.

Then at Punchestown on Monday, when recording his fourth success over jumps, he again came late on the scene to claim the extended two-and-a-half-mile mares’ maiden hurdle on Rock On Cassie, who is trained by his boss, Gordon Elliott.

In other jockey news, Co Donegal-born Dylan Browne McMonagle, the reigning champion apprentice, lost his claim when partnering Hadman to victory in the seven-furlong conditions race at Dundalk last Friday evening for his boss, Joseph O’Brien.

Also from Co Donegal, Luke McAteer won the concluding six-furlong handicap at Dundalk on Wednesday on the David Laverty-bred, Lee Smyth-trained Adams Barbour.

Over jumps

Over jumps, the first two races at Limerick on Tuesday were won by northern-born jockeys. Co Armagh’s Shane O’Callaghan landed the opening claiming hurdle on the Robert Tyner-trained Spare Brakes while Jordan Canavan, who’s from Co Antrim, though you wouldn’t know it to listen to him, won division one of the handicap hurdle over the same trip on the Eugene O’Sullivan-trained Earths Furies.

In Britain on Sunday, Brian Hughes recorded a treble for three different trainers at Sedgefield where Danny McMenamin partnered one winner for his boss, Nicky Richards.

The Hughes-ridden Heartbreak Kid, who justified favouritism for the Donald McCain yard in the extended two-mile novices’ handicap chase, won a four-year-old maiden at Kirkistown in March 2019 on his only point-to-point start.

The North Down Hunt is holding a meeting at that venue on the Ards peninsula next Saturday.

On his fourth start for Brian Hamilton, and on his fourth over hurdles, the Shane Fitzgerald-ridden Justicialism battled back close home to see off the 6/4 favourite, Dr Churchill, by a neck in the two-mile four-year-old hurdle at Punchestown on Monday.

The Vadamos gelding provided a first track success for owner Norman Houston on whose behalf Kevin Ross Bloodstock had purchased the bay at Newmarket last July.

At the same meeting, the extended two-and-a-half-mile rated novice hurdle was won by the Danny Doran-bred Captain Conby, a five-year-old gelding by Conduit.

The chesnut is trained in Co Kilkenny by Dusty Sheehy for the O’Reilly Buller Partnership.