Top Of The Pops in full cry for Murray Top Of The Pops made most in the Paulstown Handicap at Gowran Park to spring a 25/1 surprise. Wesley Joyce worked him across from stall nine and the pair led narrowly after a furlong. Joyce dictated thereafter and although his mount came under pressure outside the '2' pole, he stuck to his task well. The leader came under a drive approaching the final furlong as Royal Pippen threw down the gauntlet. Top Of The Pops was in full cry in the closing stages as he went on by a length and three-parts for the Lios Dearg Rangers Partnership. There was a bunch up for minor honours with Suityourselfboss (10/1 - 6/1) taking second by a neck from Royal Pippen (85/40f). Top Of The Pops won on debut in Leicester for Mark Johnston back in October 2020. After four runs in Britain, he had seven unplaced efforts in Ireland before this success. He's a half-brother to multiple Group 1 winner Poet's Word. Jerry Murray said: “He was off for a good while and had his niggling problems so we campaigned him for Dundalk last year, but it didn’t suit him. “It was a bit quick for him on Sunday (at Leopardstown), so we said we’d come here hoping there was a bit of cut in the ground and thankfully there was. “I told him to try and go out and make it and he dictated from the front. When he won for Mark Johnston as a two-year-old that is the way he was trained, so we went back to them tactics. “It was a winnable mark and, to be honest, we were going to pull the plug on him if he wasn’t in the first six.” Additional reporting by Alan Magee
