Griffin grabs Graded glory at Cork Eoin Griffin bridged a 14-year gap between Graded wins today as the trainer’s Ol Man Dingle (11/4) landed Cork’s Grade 3 Paddy Power Irish EBF Novice Chase under jockey Ricky Doyle. The six-year-old had completed a hat-trick of hurdle wins last year and having scored on seasonal and chasing debut at Galway in October, today stepped into Graded company for the first time. Under Irish Grand National-winner Doyle, Ol Man Dingle was held up in the five-runner race and having disputed the lead from the third-last, eventually led on the run-in and scored by 2.75 lengths from You Oughta Know . Relieved Griffin, with some emotion, reported “we had really been looking forward to today and that is my first Graded win since 2011. It is a long time since we’ve had a horse like this and we’ve had a few false dawns, so it is brilliant to have one like him. “I put the tongue-tie back on Ol Man Dingle today — he doesn’t need it but I wasn’t taking any chances. Ricky gave him a lovely ride, the horse has brilliant scope but can be a little brave. “During his career prep, we thought an awful lot of him so went for a bumper, but he made a noise and choked. He had never given us that indication beforehand so he had a wind operation but it took him a run or two to get his confidence.” “He had a bad virus at the end of last season, my yard went down with something around April and May when we had few runners and he has done well to come back from it.” Griffin, whose best horse Kazal finished third in the 2008 Stayers Hurdle, added “we have a brilliant group of staff and have 22 horses riding out which still makes us very small, but hopefully this will give us momentum. “This horse will get an entry for the Drinmore now and while I know Willie’s (Mullins, champion trainer) horses have yet to reappear, we’ll enjoy today and worry about that later.”
