Ansar steps up to the Plate

THE King of Ballybrit, Dermot Weld, struck for a third time in the Hewlett-Packard sponsored Galway Plate yesterday when Ansar battled gamely to beat top weight Risk Accessor to take the €103,725 first prize.

The master of Rosewell House on the Curragh, whose ability to plunder big race prizes not only in Ireland but around the world is legendary, reckoned the secret of victory yesterday was that he was afraid to run the horse over fences since this race last year for fear he would go up in the weights.

Weld's fabled judgment was not found wanting and Ansar now joins Grey Swallow and Simple Exchange as big race winners he has produced this season.