Barcoe finds the key to Halsafari Trainer and Bowe family-fan Jimmy Barcoe registered a first success with the famous silks today as his veteran Halsafari (20s — 16/1) rolled back the years to win Cork’s Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Hurdle. Twelve-year-old Halsafari’s previous success came at Limerick’s Christmas festival of 2019 and having joined Gowran-based Barcoe this year, today travelled well and scored readily under jockey Harry Sexton, from runner-up Bannow Blaze . Halsafari is out of top racemare Solerina and Barcoe revealed “I have been one of the lads’ biggest fans over the years with what they’ve done with all those good horses and, even yesterday, they had a horse (Glen Kiln) finish second in a Grade 1. “I have been friends with them and been curious about how they’d done things all my life, so was delighted when Michael asked me to take this horse a couple of months ago. I’m very lucky to have him and not too many have one out of Solerina. "Between their three really good horses Limestone Lad, Solerina and Sweet Kiln, they earned €1.8m in prize money which is incredible even at today's levels.” Regarding Halsafari, he added “he is 12 now and had a good blow on his first run for me and improved a lot the second day at Punchestown. Thank God he has come forward again today. “This is a brilliant game, it is a way of life and I like to keep things as tight as I can (with horse numbers).”
