Morrissey wins Up The Yard Challenge on Sir Gerhard Dual Cheltenham festival winner Sir Gerhard (6/4f) ran away with the concluding Up The Yard Challenge Race for stable staff at Punchestown today, when proving a popular winner under Aimee Morrissey. The race traditionally sees professional jockeys switch rolls to instead lead-up horses ridden by stable staff with today’s high-class 16-runner renewal also featuring another Cheltenham festival winner Galvin. In the race, the Willie Mullins-trained Sir Gerhard led travelling well early in the home straight and scored readily by four lengths from Caesar Rock, with Morrissey receiving a good reception in the winner’s enclosure Delighted Morrissey said “that was very exciting! He is a school master and if he wasn’t going to mind me, I don’t know who was. “Everyone said it would be over before you know it, and it really was. I couldn’t hear anything due to the wind and I had no idea I was so far clear!”
