Murphy goes Fishery with Fox Swamp Fox’s name was in many notebooks during a successful summer campaign but on Saturday the Joe Murphy trained gelding tackles some of national hunt racing’s biggest names when he contests the four runner Grade 3 Text Your Bet To Paddy Power On 51465 Fishery Lane Hurdle at Naas. The four year old completed a hat-trick of summer wins, which included valuable wins in the amateur riders’ handicap at Galway and the Lartigue Hurdle at Listowel, but today steps up further in grade. He faces the Willie Mullins trained, RIch Ricci owned Koshari, the J.P. McManus owned, Joseph O’Brien trained Slowmotion and the four-timer chasing Missy Tata, for trainer Gordon Elliott. Trainer Murphy is under no illusion regarding Swamp Fox’ s (already the winner of E117,000 in prizemoney) task and says “there are two fillies in the race but of the last six years, four of the races have been contested by money-on shots and I’d have to be fearful of WIllie Mullins’ Koshari. It’s a nice race and there’s not much between them all on ratings and I think whatever way the race works out, the handicapper can’t do much with him. “Swamp Fox has now done his job but is still only a four year old and the race will tell us where we go with him. I think he is better with an ease and he could have plenty of options later in the season but we’ll learn more tomorrow.” By Tom Weekes
