Walsh goes flat out for double
Walsh recorded only the second flat success of his professional career when guiding the strongly supported favourite Piercing Sun to victory in the two mile McHale Engineering Maiden.
Walsh sent his mount into the lead turning into the short straight and he held the late challenge of Nearly A Moose by a neck.
Winning trainer Tony Mullins explained that he ran Piercing Sun here to get a handicap mark and intends letting him take his chance in a two-mile handicap at Galway next week, either in the GPT Amateur Handicap on Monday or later at the Festival.
The former champion had an armchair ride when bringing home 1/2 favourite Askthejudge in the concluding Cummins Hardware Maiden Hurdle and the Frank Ennis-trained gelding is also Galway bound.
Ennis plans a mixed programme for Askthejudge which is owned by the Naas-based Jack Of All Trades Syndicate, starting with the valuable Thomas McDonagh Handicap at Galway on Tuesday.
The Peter McCreery-trained Load and Lock ended a losing run stretching back almost five years when winning the Blue Thunder Fast Foods Claremorris Handicap Chase under Barry Cash.
Load and Lock was left in front when the leader Blitzy Boy blundered at the third last fence and Cash kept him going well to record an elusive win.
Cathy Gannon, the season’s leading apprentice, was on the mark again, recorded her 13th success of the campaign when 12/1 shot Count Altanne pounced inside the final furlong to win the Yolanda O’Gorman Memorial Handicap for Tipperary trainer Tim Doyle.
But the easiest winner of the night was Fullasoul, trained by Harry Rogers, which came out on top in the JJ Burke & Izuzu Ballinrobe Handicap Hurdle in effortless style for Barry Geraghty.
This winner is likely to run on the flat at Galway before being launched on a chasing career.
