Enjoy d'Allen the flagbearer for upwardly mobile Murphy Pride Of Derry’s win in the opening maiden at Roscommon on Monday evening was a first success in the two-year-old category for trainer Ciaran Murphy. Based in Charlestown Stud near Mullingar, Murphy, who also enjoyed success at last month’s Galway Festival with Black Cat Bobby, is still in his first year with a licence having previously been assistant to Irish Grand National winning trainer Dot Love. The latter is still very much involved in day-to-day operations, and has taken on the role of transporting the stable’s runners to race meetings around the country. A very recognisable and popular figure around the enclosures, she remarked at Sligo yesterday: “It’s a reversal of roles for myself and Ciaran, and it’s going well. I don’t mind the travelling, and crucially it gives Ciaran another couple of hours at home with the horses.” The latter who, like Love, comes from a background in eventing and showjumping, got off to a great start back in January when Enjoy D’Allen provided him with a prompt breakthrough winner at Fairyhouse, on his debut for the yard, and the Network gelding followed up later that month at Thurles. The consistent 7-year-old rounded off last term with a fine third behind Freewheelin Dylan in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National in April, and Murphy has high hopes for his charge who recently returned from a summer break. “He’s back in a fortnight and you wouldn’t know him. He’s strengthened and probably even grown which is hard to believe for an older horse. “We are really looking forward to the year ahead with him and I think the plan is Aintree. “He could go for something like the Paddy Power at Christmas. He also has a nice hurdle mark which we might exploit in the autumn. “We’d then plan for either Fairyhouse or Aintree. That would be the main target.” On the strength of the stable in general, Murphy added: “We have about 60 horses, half and half between the Flat and jumpers. “We are after gathering up a few nice young horses and a few nice owners are after coming on board. “It might take a year or so for them to click into gear and hopefully in the next couple of years we will have something worthwhile coming through.” Additional reporting by Gary Carson
