Blues Emperor completes hat-trick for Murtagh and Coen Already in the winners' enclosure twice during the evening, Johnny Murtagh and Ben Coen completed a hat-trick on the card as Blues Emperor landed the Free Ice Cream For All Children Handicap at Fairyhouse. A four-time previous winner, the now six-year-old had last been successful on the all-weather at Dundalk last October. Arguably a better horse on turf, the gelding had dropped to a mark of 89 after a couple of below par runs this season. A former Irish Cambridgeshire runner-up the son of Gleneagles, sat mid-division here in the early part of the race. Produced to challenge leader I Bid You Ajou early in the straight, the 7/2 chance led a furlong out, keeping on well to win by two-and-a-half lengths. Johnny Murtagh said: “He’s a warrior and I think he likes the sun nowadays. He came out of the Curragh so well and I think seven is a good trip for him as well. “We’ve been running him in those Premier Handicaps over a mile, and he won one of them at the Curragh. “Maybe the big seven-furlong handicap at Galway on the Sunday, that’s where we might go next.” Additional reporting by Alan Magee.
