McConnell excited by smart French recruit Trainer John McConnell was amongst the winners at his local track of Bellewstown yesterday with The Pargey Bee and afterwards had news of his new recruit Coachello, a five-time winner over six and seven furlongs in France. The gelded son of Dunkerque, who has won twice on the all-weather and three times, including a Listed race at Longchamp, on turf, is now in the ownership of Alymer Stud and is well entered up in both stakes races and valuable handicaps in the coming weeks. "He's a very nice horse," said McConnell. "He's 106-rated and we bought him in France, and he was going to go to (Royal) Ascot, but he just scoped wrong a week before so we will take our time with him and he will probably be out the end of July in maybe the Stewards Cup. "The Stewards Cup is some prize money and he'll get into it. "It looked from his French runs that he might be getting quicker, so six (furlongs) might be his trip ultimately. "He's a lovely horse. He's relaxed at home, I think he is more of a keen goer in his races. We'll probably learn a lot from his first run I suppose. It is nice to have that sort of rating, 106-rated horses are normally my hurdlers!" Additional reporting by Michael Graham
