Going - Soft To Heavy (Soft In Places). Fine
Jackpot Pool - €12,017.46 Not Won. Carried forward to No Course on Sunday 2nd April. Placepot Pool - €48,145.86 Dividend - €489.00 Winning Units - 68.91. Pick Six Pool - €19,270.31 Not Won. Carried forward to No Course on Sunday 2nd April. Days Aggregate - €442,642.00
Bay looks smart as turf Flat begins
She probably handled the ground better than most of them. She was bred at Lumville Stud which is one of Sheikh Hamdan's studs in Co. Offaly, and they run a good outfit there. Hopefully she goes on from this.
Aidan and Ana O'Brien double up
He'd a couple of good runs. He galloped home well and will get further. He'll step up now and could go to Leopardstown for a Guineas Trial. We are happy with the way the horses have run today. You are never sure how forward they are this time of the year before you run. We won't have a two-year-old runner out until the Dundalk meeting (on April 12) or maybe the meeting here the weekend before that. They will be just ready to start. Caravaggio will work here tomorrow and then the plan is to go to Dundalk for the Listed Patton Stakes (on April 12) over seven furlongs. Everything seems fine with him so far. Churchill is good and everything seems to be fine so far with him as well.
Gymkhana makes great start for Lyons
He's been very straight forward and I felt if it was seven furlongs I would have fancied him to be in the money. I was learning as much about him as everyone else today,. That was a nice performance and he has plenty of toe but you would like to think that he will get further. It's a nice way to start the season and the three-year-old (Imagine If) ran a cracker. I'm delighted to have new owners in the yard and to train a winner for them.
Stack off the mark on opening day
It’s good to have that monkey off my back! He’d been working well, and has got stronger since last year. I always thought that he wanted better ground but he had been working well on grass a few times during the spring. He stays well and he could get a mile and a quarter. It’s good to have Chris. He has plenty of experience and Kevin (Prendergast) has been good and hopefully it works out well for everybody. We have about 60 horses this year, and half of those are two-year-olds. We have a good squad but only time will tell.
Lee still going strong 25 years on
We took her to Saint-Cloud a few weeks ago but she was too free for the first half a mile and it was a complete wasted effort. But I just spoke to David Wachman (part owner) and he said it was a great prep run taking her all the way to Paris. She's done it very nicely, and we had fitness on our side and that helped. We have a fairly moderate band of broodmares but he (Sixties Icon) has improved them all. We wanted to get her going early as she had that Esher Cup form early last year in soft ground and ran well in the Guineas.
What a start for team Lyons
To be honest we fancied Sea Wolf more but you can't beat class. He's been an absolute legend for the yard, and hopefully he can win another Stakes race this year. I'm delighted for Gary as well as he's a big part of the team. He got a lovely split on the inner and he just took off. I have 90 boxes and they are all full. Whether or not they will be full in June is another matter as I'm more about quality than quantity. I have been in awe of Gordon Elliott and what he's been doing all winter, and the one thing I have learned from him is to run them.
