Matt Connor bags Albert Bartlett Qualifier

Adrian Sheils' Matt Connor (morning 7s, to 14/1) defied a market drift in winning Naas’ Albert Bartlett Triple Crown Series Qualifier Handicap Hurdle today, with trainer Philip Dempsey now eyeing some festival targets.

Confidently ridden by Keith Donoghue, the son of Teofilo led travelling well at the final flight and scored comfortably by 6.5 lengths from Peaceinthevalley .

Matt Connor was steered to a Leopardstown fourth-placing during Christmas by the trainer’s Australian-based jockey son Luke Dempsey, and today Dempsey senior reported “he’s a very small horse so Luke said he might be better riding him out wider and away from other horses the last day, so Keith did the same today.

“He jumped great, handled the ground well and was very good, I’m delighted with him. He had run well in Leopardstown and we thought the extra two furlongs would be no burden to him.”

Dempsey, with his second winner this week, added “I don’t know how strong the race was but it looked alright on paper. He might give the owners a day out in the Coral Cup or something, and the final of this race at Punchestown is also worth considering as it’s a €100,000 race. Obviously he’ll get a fair hike for winning today though.”

Quotes from Gary Carson