Paul Carberry's sheer class in the plate was underlined yet again at a bitterly cold Fairyhouse on Saturday when he teamed up with his boss Noel Meade for a near 4 = / 1 double.
The Meathman initiated his brace in the opening Kilbride 3-Y-O Hurdle after he performed heroics to stay on board Harchibald when the French import blundered early at the second flight. After the well supported 9/4 shot (from 3/1) regained his composure, he jumped well for the remainder of the journey and arrived full of running to collar Bellaficient and Mutineer on the run-in to open his account in good style.
Cashmans introduced the American-bred, owned by retired Dublin businessman Des Sharkey, at 25/1 for the Triumph Hurdle next March and Meade is hopeful of better things to come. 'I was impressed with him at home and I'd say he likes soft ground. I'd say he could be nice,' he said.
Rosaker, a dual flat winner in Dubai, needed all of Carberry's urgings from the last to put his head in front close home and land the Curragha Maiden Hurdle at the expense of a gallant 33/1 chance Running On.
Sent off the hot 4/6 market leader, the five-year-old didn't have the ideal preparation, according to the Navan handler. 'He arrived here at 11.00am and was in a cold sweat ever since. He got very wound up and never settled in his box and I'm sure it didn't help him. He's definitely a better horse on better ground and he'll go for a winners of one next.'
Sean Treacy's Be My Belle and Barry Geraghty made all to win the 3m1f beginners chase by twenty lengths from Sadler's Mark after surviving a mistake at the sixth last. The Willie Neville Chase at Leopardstown, a race in which her half-sister Rose Of Inchiquin finished second in before, is next on the agenda for this game front runner.
Bust Out, off the track for nearly a year, was left in front after Canary Wharf fell at the last when racing alongside Jessica Harrington's charge in the 2m2f beginners chase while successful rider Barry Geraghty went on to complete a treble when Mick Butler's Risetotheoccasion obliged in the handicap hurdle.
Sadly for connections of Canary Wharf, the 6yo winner of three races was humanely destroyed some twenty-five minutes after falling at the last when John Bleahen's charge suffered a broken near-fore elbow.
