Irish Trainers Dominate Bumper Again On Day Two Of The Festival

Jessica Harrington trained her first winner of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper when Cork All Star justified the confidence in him, running out a comfortable winner under a limping Barry Geraghty.

This race had been the plan for connections since a course and distance win here in November. Owned and bred by Cathal Ryan's Swordlestown Stud in Co. Kildare this gelding by Fasliyev has a regal pedigree, being out of a half-sister to the 1988 1000 Guineas winner Ravinella.

This was the 10th success in a row for Irish-breds in the Cheltenham Bumper and the eighth to be also trained in Ireland during that time.

On a day that was dominated by exciting young Irish-bred horses, it was the Irish-bred Denman who proved himself to be the superstar horse everyone hoped that he was when easily winning the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at Cheltenham today in the hands of Ruby Walsh. Favourite for the race since betting started, the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding never gave his backers cause for concern by winning from fellow Irish-bred, the Willie Mullins-trained Snowy Morning who ran with great credit and is himself a staying chaser of promise. According to John, also bred in Ireland was third.

But this was a triumph not just for Irish breeding but also for the Irish point to point circuit as the first three were Irish point to point graduates, giving further strength to the theory that a solid grounding in the Irish point to point fields is the best way for steeplechasers to begin their careers.

By Presenting, Denman was bred by Colman O'Flynn in Co. Cork, indeed his dam Polly Puttens was the first mare owned by him. Former jockey Adrian Maguire trained him to win his point to point at Liscarroll two years ago.

This was the eighth time in the last 10 runnings that an Irish-bred has won this race.

Earlier, 20/1 chance Massini's Maguire, trained by Phillip Hobbs, became the sixth Irish-bred horse in the last 10 years to win the Ballymore Properties Novices Hurdle when continuing the run of shock results at the meeting. Bred by Gerard Quirk at his Cregg Cottage Farm, outside Carrick-On-Suir, Co. Tipperary, the son of Dr Massini started his racing career in Ireland under the care of trainer Margaret Mullins, for whom he won a bumper at Limerick in May 2005 before being sold to his current connections. His dam Molly Maguire is currently in foal to Saffron Walden.