Mento Gets Off the Mark in Kilbeggan

It was a lovely start over hurdles and it’s nice to get my first winner for Paul Byrne,. He was a bit disappointing in his bumpers, I thought he was a bit better. I did say to Paul to give him one more chance as he loves jumping. He said ‘he’d want to improve a good bit’ but it’s amazing what a jump can do to a horse. He dossed a bit in front but he’s only four and was taking on older horses there so it was a fair performance. There are some lovely novice races over a bit of a trip and he could even end up in Galway.

News hits the headlines again at Kilbeggan

It’s super, obviously in a small field like that you are worried that it could turn into a tactical affair,. She had the least experience in the race so it’s great to see her pull it out like that. She’s such an honest mare and a pleasure to deal with. We’re very lucky to find a mare like her that’s after winning her first two. It’s hard enough to place her after winning first time out as there are no mares’ novices. We had to take on the geldings. We took the chance, going up to three miles today, and it worked out. It was a great rider from Alan. I was a bit worried when the leader was ahead but he was confident that he had enough horse to catch up at all times. It seems that she doesn’t mind toughing it out. We’ll regroup now and see where we go next. After the last day I thought the best thing to do was to go and try to chase a bit of prize-money. I don’t want to over step her and take on mares that are too good yet. It’s a great day, we came all the way from Cork and it’s good to be coming up here and getting a winner. She loves good ground, she just seems to really enjoy it.

Secret Rock Makes It a Double for Collins and Gilligan

We have him a while. He has a few problems but we got them sorted,. The girls did a great job with him. They nursed him really and got him in good form. He did it nicely there today, his work was good at home. It’s a new syndicate (Country Ways Syndicate). They are 28 lads from Kilmessan, local to us, so it’s great. He’ll mix it during the summer and could run on the Flat at Killarney maybe, for the boys. They’ll enjoy it anyway.

Bresil back with a bang

He had a little bit of a suspensory issue, nothing major, and we just had to give him the time,. He’s a big horse and he always looked like he was going to be better over a fence. He goes on good ground so I’d say we’ll keep him going for the summer now. I’d like to get him to Galway if I can, we’ll see how he comes out of the race. There is a handicap back here in a couple of weeks. If he bounced out of the race we might look at that. You have to have three runs before you can run in any of the bigger chases. It’s a great first step so we are thrilled. Tim (O’Driscoll) is abroad, in either France or Spain. I can’t keep up with him. He’s had a good old time of it and we’ll keep him over there!

Warriors Wood Comes Out on Top in Kilbeggan