Sabadilla gets there the hard way

Few horses have taken a more complicated route to Guinness Galway Hurdle glory than Sabadilla but like his jockey-trainer, Pat Verling, he managed to get there in the end.

The much travelled nine-year-old displayed the feet of a ballet dancer in a critical move on the run in that earned Verling a caution from the stewards but also the greatest success of his career.

Verling (36), has had a riding career that has chugged along for many years far from the limelight. But just two full seasons with the addition of a trainer´s licence have helped change that.

He has less than 15 horses in his yard in Castlelyons, near Fermoy in Co Cork, but Sabadilla´s success yesterday means the capacity will probably have to be expanded. If it is Sabadilla could well run into some old friends.

In a 31-race career, the son of Sadler´s Wells won the 1997 November Handicap for John Gosden, found himself transferred to Dubai and the care of Saeed Bin Suroor for two years, returned to Britain to start a jumping career and eventually landed in east Cork last January.

Now the property of Cork city businessman Bill Coleman, Sabadilla also provided Verling with a first success at the Punchestown festival but reserved his very best for Galway.

'He is such a genuine horse and he loves competition. That´s why I switched to the rail and then came off it again. He was passing horses and that gave him that bit of oomph. It´s the way to get the best out of him,' Verling said.

It looked a high-risk strategy for some time. The second favourite, Cloone River, had taken the lead from Crimson Flower on the turn in and looked the likely winner.

Verling´s switch meant some quick thinking after the last but Sabadilla managed to cause remarkably little damage when manoeuvring back off the fence.

'It was a calculated risk and I got away with it,' Verling admitted.

It resulted in a stewards enquiry but the places were unaltered and the time it took will have helped the bookmakers count the cash left behind on the gambled on favourite Puck Out.

JP McManus´s horse finished a poor 12th while last year´s runner-up, Mutakarrim, was described as 'very disappointing' by Dermot Weld, in ninth.

As if his calculated risk, a stewards enquiry and the celebrations weren´t enough, Verling also had to perform a much more mundane post-race task: he was one of five jockeys in the big race randomly nominated by the Turf Club to provide a dope test!

Norman Williamson also took a less than normal route to success on Golden Row in the novice chase.

After walking the track he concluded that a fast piece of ground was available on the outside where vehicles had been driven and the Edward O´Grady trained winner took full advantage.

'He likes good ground and he´s as good a jumper as a novice as I´ve ever had,' said O´Grady. 'It´s great to see him back. He has been fired, hobdayed, burst blood vessels and had a tie-back.'

Patrizio continued his winning run in the novice hurdle, streaking 14 lengths clear as the favourite, Lowlander, who stumbled at the top of the hill, faded to seventh.

'He has improved out of all recognition and he´ll be even better over three miles,' said his trainer, Eoin Griffin.

Kevin Prendergast added to his second-day treble with Miss Trish in the mile handicap and Colm O´Donoghue powered Mwaley home ahead of No Frontier in the fillies handicap.

A fourth day crowd of 37,394 bet an all-time national record of Euro 1,738,931 on the Tote yesterday.

It was a substantial increase on the corresponding 2002 Tote figure of euro 1,549,191.

However, the crowd figure itself was down from last year´s 38,882.

The bookmaker turnover was not a record but was up from last year´s euro 2,632,758 to euro 2,869,605.

A total of euro 552,912 was bet on the Galway Hurdle.