Going - Good, good to yielding in places. Fine
Jackpot Pool - €10,000.00 Dividend - €227.80 Winning Units - 33.22. Placepot Pool - €34,249.13 Dividend - €37.20 Winning Units - 1380.81. Pick Six Pool - €20,000.00 Dividend - €546.87 Winning Units - 25.6.
The Holy One lands the odds in Thurles opener
He had been running in handicaps and had a high rating and this race came up and I realised he was eligible and away we went. He hung to the left a fair bit but he has a cut on his joint so it might have been that so we'll try and find another little rated novice hurdle. I'm half thinking of going chasing with him after February 1 but we'll see and we'll go wherever we can find a race for him.
First Approach finishes alone in dramatic W T O'Grady Hurdle
He was never going like a horse that was going to win at any stage of the race and he hung the whole way. I don't know why but there is some little thing annoying him, whatever it is. We thought after Naas we sorted it out because he didn't really travel, but we obviously didn't. I know she (Rachael Blackmore on Cool Saint) might have beat him but he wasn't doing a stroke so who knows. He was idling the whole way and it is very tight today but he won and they all count. We think he is a very nice horse but what I'm going to do with him, I don't know. He is more a chaser than a hurdler and maybe he'd like easier ground too.
The King Of Brega scores in incident-packed handicap
Double Portrait justifies strong support
The horses in the last three months have had dirty noses and I haven't been to the doctor myself in 50 years, and I still didn't go, but had a bad dose since Christmas. Between the horses and myself not being well, it was hard the past couple of months but thankfully Tom and Martin (Doran) have had the confidence to wait and some of the horses are still not right. I actually had Sanibel Island backed myself and he was just getting into it nicely when he tipped up. The penny is starting to drop with him and Danny said he'd win again. It's grand for Tom Doran who has eight horses with me, including some young horses to be broken later in the summer.
Cheltenham Foxhunters next for Ucello Conti
He'll be entered for the English National but we wanted to qualify him for the Foxhunters at Cheltenham so he'll go straight to Cheltenham now. There's still plenty of improvement in him. Barry said he landed on his hind legs at the second last and it took him a while to get going but he was confident he was going to win and was only getting into top gear again.
