Keane and You 2 at concert pitch for Tynan

THOLM KEANE has been getting a nice tune out of tenor Ronan Tynan’s horses at this week’s Millstreet Horse Show, but yesterday he was right on song when taking the first of the show’s grands prix with Redmills Warrenstown You 2.

One of just seven to match the course-building of Alan Wade and Tony Hurley, the Waterford rider took victory by just nine-hundredths of a second.

“I am delighted, absolutely delighted, with the horse today. I hope it gives Ronan a big lift,” said a jubilant Keane, who has figured prominently in the highly-competitive Boomerang qualifiers this week.

The win sees Keane narrow Francis Connors’s lead at the top of the Boswell League to just 12 points, after the latter failed to make the second round with both of his horses.

Such was the difficulty of yesterday’s track that those who braved the heavy rain had to wait until the 34th rider before seeing the first clear round.

This was provided by Greg Broderick, who went on to finish runner-up on Quarrier Z.

The only other double clear came courtesy of Trevor Breen and Always Cullohill.

Horse Sport Ireland chairman Joe Walsh was in Millstreet to see Galway rider Olive Clarke take the plaudits in the Irish Horse Board six and seven-year-old final yesterday. The former agriculture minister was joined by IHB chairman Nicholas Finnerty as Clarke and Special Effects showed their class with John Melia’s seven-year-old Bahrain Cruise-sired bay gelding.

A third of a second off the pace was runner-up Suzanne Posnett, from Down, who teamed up with the Touchdown-sired Touchable to lead home a trio of six-year-olds.