Gaelic Arc gives Ryan a brace of winners Trainer John Ryan saddled a double in Kilbeggan when Gaelic Arc (9/1 - 11/2) showed his mettle in the Belvedere Galway Plate Trial Handicap Steeplechase of €25,000. The double paid 109.5/1 and Harry Sexton was in the saddle on this winner. The jockey had built up a clear advantage, but it was greatly whittled away before two out. It was Le Coq Hardi who looked the most threatening of his rivals as he moved into second off the home bend. Sexton still had plenty of horse under him, though, and when he asked him to go and win his race after the last, that's exactly what he did as he stayed on best by three-parts of a length from Le Coq Hardi (12/1) who came at him again close home. Henry de Bromhead saddled the runner-up and the third home, Marv Michael (2/1f). Ryan's other winner on the card was The Little Yank (16/1), ridden by Liam Quinlan in race four. He said: “He’s dropped down through the handicap and is a fair horse at that sort of weight. It was the obvious thing to go on with a horse that jumps like him. “He might go to Killarney next month for a good two-mile chase that he won last year, and he’ll go to Galway for something.” Additional reporting by Alan Magee
