Going - Straight: Yielding, good to yielding places Round: Good to Yielding, yielding places. Showery
Jackpot Pool - €1,286.18 Dividend - €900.30 Winning Units - .06. Placepot Pool - €21,964.24 Dividend - €12.80 Winning Units - 1193.56. Days Aggregate - €210,656.26 Last Year €316,544.00
Papilio takes Auction maiden in fine style
She's a nice filly and she wasn't getting any fillies allowance there. She's worked well consistently, she's probably a filly in time that will want seven or a mile to be fair to her. She's out of a High Chaparral mare so hopefully she'll stretch out a bit. She has a great mind and does everything very straight-forward. We could probably look at the Silver Flash or the Balanchine Stakes back here. Wayne liked her, he said she hit a bit of a flat spot at the two pole and that he got there too soon. He said he got to the line without hitting top gear.
Vellner shows benefit of experience to open account
He's been green and his behaviour was terrible the first day. He improved a little bit the second day and I thought coming here today it would take a good one to beat him. My friend Adrian Costello bought him as a foal and the day he bought him I loved him. I was in Listowel the day he was selling him in England as a yearling. I rang him and said 'how are you getting on'. He said 'so so', then I bought him and then Colin (Lynskey) came and bought him off me. He's a lovely horse and I'd say that's only the start. We'll see what happens now.
Hannibal Barca takes Gallinule for new yard
He was obviously a good two-year-old, we just had a little hold up so we ended up starting today. I'm delighted to get the season started off nicely with him. Thanks to Mick (Donohoe) for trusting me with him and hopefully he's a horse that can go forward from here. I thought he did well because I thought it set up for the horses closer to the speed. Shane had to move out to get a clear run and I thought he gave him a good ride the way the race worked out tactically. He hit the line well and I think it was a good enough performance. Coming here I wasn't sure how far we would be going but looking at the race you'd be going further rather than shorter.
Crown lands big pot for Murphy
We're delighted with that, she's a very genuine, honest filly and loves racing,. We don't have her long but loved her the day we got her. We're lucky to have Robert Moran as an owner, he's a big owner to have and we're delighted to have our first winner for him. It was a good race, we got in and took our shot. We'll stick to handicaps with her for the moment and see how she is but I'm delighted with that win.
Navagio strikes for Murtagh and Coen
The hood helped. We had the red hood on him the last day, took it off and when he went into the stalls there was a bit of rattling. Ben said he got upset so we left it on him today. He's a horse we've always liked, he has a big engine and is a good striding horse. In fairness to him he battled well today when the second came to him. Hopefully he can go on and keep progressing because he works better than this rating. Mentally he's probably still a little immature but that should do his confidence the world of good. We think he's well handicapped so we'll look for a handicap next. Seven is good and I think he will get a mile, the last time he just got himself a bit upset. He's a horse I always thought would get a mile but maybe seven again next time.
Verhoyen blows away his rivals
He he wins, he wins well! I'm sure the handicapper will crucify him for another year now,. He's competitive when he gets back down to the mid 80s. He wears his heart on his sleeve and I left the blinkers off him on his first couple of starts this season as I was getting sick of putting them on him all the time and wanted to try something different. Mikey (Sheehy) thought the last day the ground might have been a bit lively, he looked outpaced and then ran on again at the end so I thought I might put the blinkers back on him. I said to Billy if he got the break to send him and ride it like it's six furlongs as there was a tailwind behind him and nothing was coming from behind today. He's in on Sunday over six furlongs but there is no rain forecast. I want to run him but if nothing falls between now and then he won't be running. We'll walk it Sunday morning and hopefully we can run him.
Stack doubles up with Adore You
She was a bit disappointing early in the year, I've always had quite a high opinion of her,. She had a very good first run behind Markaz Paname in Cork and it's been a bit downhill since but hopefully she's back on track. Maybe we might have ridden her a bit wrong the last day too, we let her bowl along and it might have been the wrong thing to do. I always thought she might be a stakes filly but she's a long way away from that at the minute. I probably shouldn't have run her back here last year after Cork as she was a big weak mare. In the spring she was working well but maybe took time to come to herself.
Rapide makes it two from two for Fitzgerald
She was very impressive there, she was good last Friday night and was good tonight again. She's still improving and I don't know where she's going to stop or where she's going to go next. We said we'd come here, we thought we were out of our depth but we weren't. Luke gave her a lovely ride and she's a nice filly to go forward now for the summer. We'll probably have to look for something bigger and see where she lies, probably Group 3 or Listed now. Luke said she'll get two miles so later on in the year we could look at the Cesarewitch, that's if we don't go too high in the handicap. It's nice to get her, it was nice to get a winner last week and again this week. It's good for the yard and for everybody involved.
