Tickling leaves Thurles punters smiling The Mark Molloy owned and trained Tickling stayed on best under Killian Leonard to record a first career win in the Welcome Back To Thurles Handicap at the Tipperary venue. Having run her best race to date when third at Roscommon last time, the filly stepped up on that form to score at the seventh attempt. Held up in mid division early on, Leonard was pushing along to go fourth on the outside early in the home straight. Coming through to challenge two furlongs out, the 11/4 chance headed Nancee Spain a furlong from the finish, keeping on well to win by three lengths. Mark Molloy said: "This means a lot to me as I am very great friends with the Molonys (members in attendance to welcome back winner), who are an amazing family. "I felt the family had done an amazing job with the racecourse over the past 10 years since Pierce passed away and I felt last winter was very hard on them for so many reasons. "Any winner here is a pleasure but this is magic. "To me this course is a huge addition to National Hunt racing for all levels and I think now there is a realisation of that. Our industry sometimes doesn't realise the value of what we have." Regarding Tickling, he added "She is not a big filly, I've always loved her and she has a great mind and attitude. It was just finding the right ground for her and small three-year-olds racing against older horses also need to learn their game. She just took a few runs and ran a great race the last day, when the ground was against her. "We might give her one run in Dundalk and see." Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
