Fitting Winner of Jack Duggan The long-standing Jack Duggan Memorial Handicap Hurdle, which commemorates the first managing director of the present day race company at Gowran Park (founded in 1948) could hardly have had a more appropriate winner than the game Rickardstown. This fellow battled well under the in-form Johnny Allen to beat the strong finishing Finns Cross by a neck with just a head and one and three parts of a length back to the J P McManus-owned pair of Swiss Cottage and Adajal. Rickardstown sports the Big Five Syndicate´s silks, near identical to the Kilkenny colours, black and yellow stripes with yellow spots on a black cap and the chestnut is trained by former All-Ireland winner, Windgap-based, Kieran Purcell. Purcell said of the Topanoora gelding, "he is a good tough horse that likes good ground so we were a bit worried after all the rain. He could go to Galway. Pat Cody and all my staff deserve plenty of credit for this."
