Murphy sidelined after Fairyhouse fall

Timmy Murphy will be out of action for at least seven days after a crashing fall at Fairyhouse yesterday.

The jockey suffered concussion and was removed to hospital for X-rays to his lower back and stitches in his upper lip, following the fatal fall of his mount Darbys Bridge.

In a race that eventually went to Supreme Being, Barry Geraghty was another jockey in the wars and had to miss out on the rest of the meeting, including a winner, after hurting his lower back and being sidelined for two days.

Paul Carberry, who only returned to action at the weekend after a thumb injury, moved on to the 76-winner mark at the top of the table when Arctic Copper proved a decisive winner of the Normans Grove Chase.

Leaving his recent form behind, Arctic Copper went to the front rounding the final bend and was always travelling too strongly for the favourite Fadoudal Du Cochet, whose trainer Arthur Moore had won the race a year earlier with Klairon Davis.

Arctic Copper, owned by members of the Irish Parliament, will be going to the Cheltenham Festival for one of the supporting races, according to his trainer Noel Meade, who was bringing up his half-century.

Davids Lad and Papillon finished fourth and fifth of the five runners respectively in the the two-mile contest.

Geraghty`s place in the saddle on Prince Of Tara in the Irish National Hunt Novice Hurdle Series was taken by Ian Power and the 14-1 chance proceeded to rout the opposition, taking a substantial sum out of the ring.

Estimates of the losses sustained by the bookmakers when Prince Of Tara, taken at 16-1, won by 20 lengths from Heroic varied from €100,000 to half that amount again.

Moore had better luck later on in the Kilsallaghan Beginners Chase as the French-bred Margoulin made all the running in the hands of Barry Cash to beat Snow Dragon by a head after the pair had gone clear in the straight.

The concluding bumper produced an impressive debut scorer in Supreme Developer who quickened away from the front-running Shawings approaching the final furlong to delight his trainer Tony Mullins.

A 10th winner of his career for young amateur rider Pat Murphy, Supreme Developer got a 12-1 quote from Paddy Power and is 16-1 with Cashmans Cork for the Festival Bumper at Cheltenham.

'He will be a serious contender for Cheltenham as he was not fully wound up today,' said Mullins. 'He has scope and the temperament to be special.'