Painful day for Murphy

Timmy Murphy was the most serious casualty of a pile-up involving seven horses during the early stages of the opening contest at Fairyhouse today.

Murphy was stood down for a week because of concussion and removed to the local 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 therace 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 Euros100,000 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.

Timbera completed a hat-trick over fences for the Dessie Hughes yard when finishing strongly to claim the Dunshaughlin Handicap Chase at the main expense of the favourite, Cregg House.

Kieran Kelly waited until the run to the final fence before sending 3-1 chance Timbera up to challenge and pass the top-weight Cregg House in the air at the final obstacle, before going clear to defy the handicapper once more.

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.'