City makes impressive start over hurdles

He's a nice horse. He was a bit weak last year. We gave him his first run in the unraced bumper at the Punchestown festival and he ran very well to be second and followed up there after that,. He's strengthened up since then and had a couple of schooling hurdles before he ran in bumpers so it was always going to be a help to him today. You need to know you job going around here. Mark gave him a lovely trouble free ride, no complications, and kept him out of trouble. I was hopeful that he might progress. It's probably not the ideal place to start a horse off over hurdles, in the company he was in, but I thought a bit of him and Sean and Bernardine (Mulryan) like to have a runner or two in Galway with a chance. He's the best young horse I've had in quite a while. He might get us somewhere bigger and better. Everyone thinks there is nowhere better than Galway but there is!. We've just thought about today after Punchestown and we'll make a plan after that. He might want to go to Listowel. He likes that meeting too and there is a novice there. We'll let the horse tell us.

Blackmore shines again on Key

Rovetta springs shock after getting run

It's her first handicap and we thought quite a lot of her when she came to us. She was bought in Deauville before Christmas, by David Minton, for Kate,. We liked her and Kate leased her to the syndicate that HRI set up through Sean O'Brien, the rugby player. She had a few runs and ran well but she got kicked at the start on one of them. This was her first handicap and she really appreciated the dig in the ground. I've been running her on fairly quick ground and she loved that ground today. She still doesn't jump the greatest but that will come. My other horse that was fourth (Timetoget) the ground actually got to her. She's the opposite as she wanted good ground but she ran a great race.

Hill has to weave way to last gasp victory in amateur maiden

I don't know how she extracted herself from all that interference,. She mightn't be too bad I think. She's not a big filly. She had every excuse to be beaten and she still kept pulling, every time she saw a bit of a daylight she kept going. It's hard as well climbing that hill, she got interfered with on the hill and when you lose your momentum there she was very genuine to get going again. Twice she got stopped on the hill, and trying to carry that weight, and then she had to get going a second time and a third time. Derek had a little bit up his sleeve when Patrick came to him but she put down her head and managed to get back. It's a great result for the Mees, that's their third win of the festival.

Espere survives enquiry to land mile handicap

Great gallops rivals into ground in finale

I'm delighted. We made a plan last year when Jamie Codd got off him and said he'd a right shot in the big amateur handicap off the low 80s,. He had real consistent form but never put his head in front. The last day we really wanted to ride him aggressively but it didn't happen as there was a runaway in the race. That was the instructions today, get him out hard. We lucky we didn't get into the amateur race as it was a competitive heat. We were off a nice weight today and we thought we know it know, this is the plan. It's great to get a winner here. He's tough, he's the most genuine horse in training, the blinkers just help him travel as he's lazy.