German Derby also-ran lands Downpatrick gamble One-time German Derby-seventh Lips Freedom (morning 7s, returned 7/2) overcame poor hurdling form-figures of ‘0-0000’ to land a gamble in Downpatrick’s lowly Billie And Bertie FitzGerald Memorial Handicap Hurdle today, scoring for trainer Andrew Kinirons. Generally a 9/1 chance yesterday evening and 7/1 this morning, the 93-rated six-year-old travelled well under Donagh Meyler throughout today’s 0-110 handicap and scored easily by 2.75 lengths from Dairy Force . Tinnahinch Construction’s Lips Freedom, who today wore a first-time tongue-tie, had previously been beaten a cumulative total of 227 lengths in five hurdle starts and had trailed home 71 lengths behind the winner at Down Royal in January, but nonetheless currently possesses an Irish Flat rating of 90. Kinirons explained "I suppose the ground has been against him over hurdles, he was keen and took a few runs to get going and just settle. I think he was getting his tongue over the bit, so it wasn't the case that he was nervous and I had the tongue-tie on him but he has no wind problems. "I know this track well and had a good mare, Hidden Land, who was keen and here suits those type of horses. You can let them roll and they get a breather up the hill. "Hopefully, he will show his potential as he had good form in Germany and actually finished seventh in a German Derby (of 20 runners in 2023). He is just a work in progress and, on better ground he can mix it between Flat and hurdles. “He had run in a couple of schooling races and we were hoping that the track and better ground could bring out improvement. Donagh gave him a lovely ride and it worked out. "Hopefully, he can be a nice horse who can progress and he could be competitive in some of those nice (Flat) handicaps, so we could bring to England. "We wanted to get that winner on the board because we weren't busy last winter." Quotes from Michael Graham
