The Mourne Rambler lands Leopardstown bumper for Meade Noel Meade introduced a smart sort in the finale as The Mourne Rambler made a winning racecourse debut in the concluding Race And Stay INH Flat Race at Leopardstown. Second on his only point-to-point start, the Philip Polly-owned gelding was sent off 8/1 to go one better on his Rules debut. Held up in mi- division by Dara McGill, the four-year-old was pushed along in fifth place entering the straight. Responding to pressure, The Mourne Rambler went second a furlong out before coming through to head Cityofblindinlites 150 yards out, keeping on to score by three-and-a-quarter lengths. “We have him about two months. Philip owned a half share in him with Paddy Turley all along and they kept talking about how good he was,” said Meade. “They ran him and he was second and Philip bought the half share off him and sent him down. “I didn’t do too much with him as he was pretty fit, I was trying to keep him fresh as much as anything. “I’d say he’ll come on a good bit from the run. He seems to stay quite well. “I would have thought that they’d be pretty keen to bring him to Cheltenham and maybe back here for the Dublin racing festival. “We might even leave it like that and go to Cheltenham with him how he is. He’ll have a couple of more runs this season and then go jumping. “We’ll see how he comes out of this and we certainly won’t rush him back anyway. “There was a lot of chat about Willie’s and other horses. When a bumper breaks up like that you never really know if it’s a good race or not. We think he’s not a bad horse anyway so we’re happy enough.” Paddy Power went 20/1 The Mourne Rambler for Cheltenham Bumper Additional reporting by Gary Carson.
