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Ballyoisin blitzes BoyleSports rivals

          Ballyoisin and Darragh O'Keeffe Ballyoisin and Darragh O'Keeffe
© Photo Healy Racing

Ballyoisin (11/4 fav) was at his sparkling best as Enda Bolger’s exuberant front-running chaser made all under Darragh O’Keeffe to take the featured BoyleSports Handicap Chase by six lengths.

The top weight is now unbeaten in three chase runs at the track, and he made light of topweight to defeat Lakemilan (4/1) and Camlann (11/2) by six lengths and two and a quarter lengths.

The winner made one quite serious error just after halfway, but in general his slick jumping had his rivals in trouble from some way out.

"We definitely thought that on his first run since Christmas there'd be a question mark about his fitness," said Bolger.

"He just buzzes around there though. Darragh said he was only a passenger but his five pound helped.

"Killarney is this fella's track - that's for sure.

"Darragh also won the big one on him - the 100,000 Euro hurdle - at Listowel last year.

"We may go back for that but he'll be entered for the Kerry National as well. He stays well.

"He was on fire today - always in command.

"I thought we'd finish third or fourth and I'd have been over the moon. I'm over the moon and the stars with that.

"With the bad mistake Darragh said he was just a passenger and going too fast. He's a typical one of those fast chasers - he just wants to get on with it. The idea was to sit in third or fourth but anyway there you go!"

"There's no complaints when you win - it means you're doing something right!"

Additional reporting by Eamonn Murphy

About Mark Nunan
Mark has followed racing since he was a teenager and worked for many years as a broadcaster with the Irish version of Racecall. He joined the Press Association in 2019 and is also a contributor to the Racing Post. A native of Kildare, he now lives in Sligo.