Roachdael House (nearest)© Photo Healy Racing
Paul Flynn took inspiration from Ryanair with his weekend planning and the trainer was duly rewarded for his endeavour with a Sligo-Scotland weekend double when his Roachdale House landed the Joe Henry Memorial Handicap Hurdle at Sligo today.
Roachdale House’s jockey Keith Donoghue was a last-minute substitution, replacing Robbie Power who was injured in the previous race, and took the opportunity when producing the gelding to lead on the run-in, for a well-judged neck win.
Flynn, whose Jackie Ellis won the 9.05pm race at Hamilton, near Glasgow, last night, today revealed “I was over there (Hamilton) and we had a quick turnaround - it was like Ryanair! Jackie Ellis’s win was great because he was my father’s (Connie) horse and he died before Christmas, so it was a good one.”
Regarding Roachdale House, he added “it took us about four years to learn how to ride him and just wants to be dropped-in - Keith (Donoghue) was a great lad to get because he rides like that and once he was available, we put him up straightaway. He gave him a peach, is a great lad and we’ve a great strike-rate together.
“He’ll go to Galway now and we actually brought him here today on purpose to see if he’d handle Galway; there’s a -0123 handicap for him there.”
