De Valira antics leave sour taste

PUNTERS who backed De Valira in the mile and six conditions race at Tipperary last night had every reason to feel aggrieved.

To put it bluntly, they simply got no run for their money. De Valira was very reluctant to line up – there were no stalls in use for this contest – and should surely have been withdrawn.

He was well adrift of the other runners down at the start and Seamus Heffernan had to eventually run in with the horse in an effort to get him to join the opposition.