Happy Jacky just comes out on top in a heated battle Happy Jacky and Reverend Hubert fought out a tremendous finish to the RBC Brewin Dolphin Hurdle with the former rallying close home to land the spoils at Cork. The evens favourite really dug deep for Peter Smithers in the closing stages to prevail by a head with the pair stretching 17 lengths clear of Prairie Dancer in third. Happy Jacky didn’t return to the winners enclosure but all was well afterwards as trainer Mark Fahey explained: “He gets a bit of heat stress after his races but he does that the whole time. “The IHRB vets know him and that he gets a bit of heat stress and they had loads of help straight after the race. “Once he gets a few buckets of water he could go around again. The vets are a great help down there. “He’s as tough as boots and I thought he was beaten three times. He battled back well to the line and Peter was brilliant on him.” Smithers said, “We said we’d make it a right test today and I put the gun to his head from the start. “I thought coming down to the last I was going to be second, but he was tough and got there in time. You wouldn’t think he was 11 and Mark has done a great job with him.”
