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Gary Carson

Gary Carson

Doyle dreaming of Cheltenham with Will

Sun 19th Jan 2025, 16:21

WillitgoaheadWillitgoahead
© Photo Healy Racing

Willitgoahead justified his short price when running out an easy winner of the concluding hunters chase at Thurles.

The Sean Doyle-trained gelding went to post an 11/10 shot in the three-mile-one contest, having been runner-up on his track debut at Limerick over Christmas.

Jamie Scallan gave the Getaway gelding a confident ride sending him to the front after the third last fence.

He had his rivals at work turning for home and didn’t need to come off the bridle in the closing stages to post a three-and-a-half length win over Ramillies

The winner had been unbeaten in three starts ‘between the flags’ before chasing home Con’s Roc on his racecourse bow last time.

Doyle said:- "Maybe we bumped into a very good horse in Limerick but he caught us by surprise then as he had a good blow and it was the first race he had all winter. He had been winning his races easily until then and we were expecting to do that today.

"He came to himself this year, has really matured and is a good ride and jumps really well. I think he is now getting down to racing and can improve again. He loved the better ground.

"We are dreaming about this lad for a while and hopefully we will now head on to Cheltenham and take our chances. We have options though and could wait for Aintree, but we'll see.

"I think this might be the year for him as I can't see a top-class Open horse coming back: the best one I've seen is Big Interest, who won a point to point for me but needs soft ground. If the ground came up good, we would be fancying our chances at Cheltenham."

(Quotes by Tom Weekes)

About Gary Carson
Gary started out as a trainee/assistant journalist with the Sporting Life newspaper and has worked in the racing industry for over 25 years. He has been with the Press Association since 2013 and won the Irish Field Nap Table in 2016. He enjoys working with horses and trained his own horse, Mamaslittlestar, to win a point-to-point in 2019.