Versatile Black Soul takes Down Royal curtain-raiser Former Flat racer and winning 'pointer' Black Soul (20/1) convincingly landed the opening Ballygowan Maiden Hurdle (DIV I) at Down Royal for trainer Paul Kiely and jockey Hugh Morgan. The addition of a hood did little to assuage the keen going tendencies of pace-setting favourite, Kara Sacre, and Black Soul had his measure from before the penultimate flight. He ended up beating fellow outsider Day Trader by two lengths, with the aforementioned market-leader Kara Sacre five and a half lengths back in third. Black Soul defeated a horse called Tippin And Tappin in a Rathcannon point-to-point last month. Evidently there's a little bit of substance to that form, as Tippin And Tappin was at the number one for handler Enda Bolger, along with Luke McMahon and his son Aubrey, at the Stowlin East Galway 'points' fixture yesterday. Here part-owner Anthony Murphy said of Black Soul: "He ran a great race there in fairness. "We were hoping that he would run well and run into a place because he performed very well in his last point-to-point - he won his point-to-point. "He's just after hitting a vein of form for some reason. He had one or two niggles. "He has run on the Flat, so he has probably got a small bit of pace. "He's the ultimate fun horse. We came with more hope than confidence. "We had a long journey up and it was worth it." M.P. O'Connor, rider of My Lady O (FR), trained by Peter Fahey, reported to the Clerk of the Scales that his mount never travelled. R. Deegan, rider of Kara Sacre (FR), trained by Paul Nolan, reported to the Stewards' Secretaries that his mount hung and jumped left throughout. (MG & EM)
