18+ | Commercial Content | T&Cs apply | Wagering and T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly | Advertising Disclosure
icon
Gary Carson

Gary Carson

Coltor back to winning ways for Weld

Sun 20th Mar 2022, 15:14

Coltor and Darragh O'Keeffe Coltor and Darragh O'Keeffe
© Photo Healy Racing

Coltor bounced back to form to run out a convincing winner of the Toals Bookmakers Rated Hurdle at Downpatrick this afternoon.

The Dermot Weld-trained gelding was well beaten in a hot handicap contest at the Dublin Racing festival on his last outing having been pulled up at Leopardstown over Christmas.

Better was expected today as the son of Free Eagle went to post 4/1 second favourite (from 10/1) in the extended two-mile-two contest.

Darragh O'Keeffe let his mount hit the front over the second last and he galloped on strongly in the closing stages to post a three-and-a-quarter length success over Clondaw Hollow

O'Keeffe said afterwards: "He enjoyed himself. He's a horse that won the big amateur handicap in Galway so if he turned up in the same spirit, he was going to be hard to beat. He was also fifth in a Fred Winter.

"A smaller field as well probably suited him more.

"I'm delighted to ride a winner for Mr Weld, he thought he would run a big race."

(Quotes by Michael Graham)

About Gary Carson
Gary started out as a trainee/assistant journalist with the Sporting Life newspaper and has worked in the racing industry for over 25 years. He has been with the Press Association since 2013 and won the Irish Field Nap Table in 2016. He enjoys working with horses and trained his own horse, Mamaslittlestar, to win a point-to-point in 2019.