La Tulipe Noire scores again for King and O'Gorman The Aengus King trained La Tulipe Noire followed up her recent win at Cork when staying on best from off a strong pace to claim the Roscommon Racecourse On Facebook Handicap. Held up towards rear by Jessica O'Gorman, the 6/1 chance had more in front than behind her turning into the straight. However, as a frantic pace set by Eric Lock and Sunday Sovereign began to collapse a furlong out, O'Gorman finished best of all on the King owned and trained mare to score easily by four-and-a-quarter lengths. “We had no luck with her at the beginning, we did various different things, and then we got Seamie Heffernan to ride her five times and she hit the crossbar a few times,” said King. “Seamie would come in and say ‘this one will win a race’. We bought her because Jessica’s father Tony is a friend of mine, and he works for me. “We bought her originally because Jessica got her Flat licence but she just wasn’t doing what we’d like so we got Seamie then and in fairness to him he got off her the last time he rode and said this mare will win. “Sometimes you don’t believe it, you think this is a jockey telling me a story, but she did turn up for Jessica the last day. He said maybe we should take advantage of the 7lb so we did the last day. “Jessica is riding great. I said to her if she could take up the running and slow it down but she said that there were two horses in it that were runaways. “She said she’d sit in. She’s still very young and hasn’t a pile of riding done but she was very clever there. She’s very good, she has a lovely feel for horses. I’m surprised she isn’t getting more spins. “We only have five horses and they’ve all won. We’ve no serious horses but we do it for ourselves, which is better again.” Additional reporting by Gary Carson.
