Dermot Weld continued his absolute domination of the Galway Festival with a treble highlighted by Rock Critic s victory in the feature Ladbrokes 'Biggest Names Best Prices' Handicap.
A winner at the track on Thursday, the six-year-old (10-11 favourite) carried a 5lb penalty and shared the lead with Jembatt for much of the way in the seven-furlong heat.
He got the better of his rival in the straight, but then had to pull out all the stops for Pat Smullen to hold the late charges of Jamesie and Sean Og Coulston by a neck and a short head.
Weld, who has had an amazing 16 winners this week, was completing a double after 4-9 favourite Natural High tucked away the opening Jockeys Association Maiden Hurdle.
Robbie McNamara's mount made a hash of the second-last flight, but soon recovered and though he wasn't fluent at the last either, he wasn't troubled to score by two and a half lengths.
The treble came up when Smullen, taking his personal tally to 12, drove Hit The Jackpot (7-2) to a length and a quarter call from the odds-on Mannheim in the ladbrokes.com EBF Maiden.
Weld had to settle for silver when Blue White Fire could not quite peg back the Aidan O'Brien-trained Vault (4-1), who led all the way under Joseph O'Brien in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Nursery and held on by a length and a quarter.
There was a decent pot up for grabs in the Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle and the JP McManus colours were carried to victory by 4-1 favourite Double Seven
Martin Brassil's five-year-old was handled with supreme confidence by Mark Walsh, who did not panic when Now This Is It held a clear advantage at the last flight, and he produced Double Seven in the final 100 yards to win by three-quarters of a length.
Paul Townend switched to the level to pilot Pozyc (4-1) to an emphatic two-length victory for Willie Mullins in the ladbrokespoker.com Handicap.
