Irish Raiders Triumphant The Irish were smiling at two of Britain’s national hunt meetings yesterday, when Philip Rothwell and John Carr both made successful raids.Indeed, Maynooth handler, Carr also saddled a winner at Carlisle on Friday. Tony Dobbin teamed up with the five-year-old Lease there for a comfortable win and the pair endeavoured to follow up that success at Hexham yesterday.Unfortunately the bid for a quick double failed, as the son of Lycius crashed out at the last when looking a likely winner. Dobbin suffered a ‘dead’ leg in the incident and was stood down for the rest of the day.Compensation wasn’t long about coming for Carr though, as he later sent out a one two in the handicap hurdle. Dunlea and Josh Byrne secured a very cheeky neck victory over his stable companion Quizzical. The latter had gone off a well-supported 11/8 favourite while the winner drifted from 11/4 to 7/2.Meanwhile, Philip Rothwell dispatched three runners over to Bangor from his Wicklow base and was rewarded with a winner and a second.Richard Johnson was employed to do the steering on Fairwood Present. Britain’s number two pilot partnered the Presenting gelding to an easy seven length win in the novices’ hurdle and justify the support that made him the 15/8 joint favourite.Champion, Tony McCoy was beaten three lengths on the stable’s, Gotaknockonthehead in the concluding bumper.Both trainers pointed to the less competitive nature of racing over there as the reason for travelling.
