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French is Dynamite at Thurles as O'Keeffe doubles-up

French Dynamite and Darragh O'KeeffeFrench Dynamite and Darragh O'Keeffe
© Photo Healy Racing

French Dynamite made it four wins from five starts at Thurles, as he made all in the feature He'llberemembered Hurdle, completing a double for Darragh O'Keeffe and owners Robcour.

Returning to action for the first time since April, the Mouse Morris trained seven-year-old was sent off an 11/4 chance, drifting from early shows of 7/4.

Pressed from the second last, he was ridden out on the run-in and kept up the gallop all the way to the line, coming home three-lengths to the good.

.Ballyshannon Rose (5/1) was coming with an effort on the approach to the last but a far from fluent jump there halted her momentum and she had to settle for second.

.Cape Gentleman, who was sent off the 11/10 favourite, had no excuses in third, another six-lengths away under Danny Mullins who replaced the stood down Donagh Meyler.

"You couldn’t fault him. I’m happy, the horse is happy, and hopefully the owners are happy," Morris said.

"I'm not sure where he'll go as he’s hard enough to place. He mightn’t beat graded horses, he might be a bit short (of that level), so we'll probably look for a handicap.

"He'll go back over fences and I think we'll end up going further by the end of the season."

Owners Robcour were earlier successful in the opener with Secret She Keeps while O'Keeffe also made all aboard Still Ciel in the third.

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes

About Donal Murphy
Donal graduated from Maynooth University in 2010 with a BBS in Equine Business and since attained a diploma in Sports Journalism from Dublin Business School. He holds a variety of roles in the horse racing industry, reporting for the Press Association and p2p.ie, while also working for SIS and the Tote. From Wexford, he is a keen runner and has completed over 100 parkruns at various locations around the country.