Berry moves to within one of Kinane in title race
Berry brought his seasonal tally to 12 thanks to a double on Rathgowney Lad and Icklingham which completed a quickfire hat-trick for Curragh trainer and new owner Denis Reddan in the listed Vintage Crop Stakes.
“He’s been a great buy for Denis,” explained Oxx. “He had a couple of little pelvis fractures, one as a three-year-old and one at four, and Denis bought him for handy money.”
“He’s been in great heart, handles the ground well and is very adaptable. But I don’t know what we’ll do with him now. I suppose the ‘Saval Beg’ is the race for him, if there’s still an ease in the ground.”
Icklingham stretched clear to slam Swiss Roll by six lengths with gallant front-runner Solerina a short-head away third. But the well-fancied Orpington flopped, trailing in last of the seven runners before being found to be suffering from sinusitis.
Berry completed his double on board the Pat Martin-trained Rathgowney Lad in the Ladbrokes Highly Entertaining Handicap, the 8/1 shot making amends for a disappointing run at Cork, for which Martin blames himself.
“We trained him hard for the Lincoln, when he was beaten by two horses fit from hurdling. And I probably ran him back too soon at Cork. What they call the ‘bounce factor’ in England probably effected him.”
Berry was denied a treble when the Oxx-trained favourite Lady Singspiel failed by a half-length to cope with the Michael Grassick-trained five-year-old debutant Hard Rock City in the first division of the Slane Maiden.
Grassick declared, “That wasn’t a surprise. He was in Ballydoyle as a two-year-old and has had a few accidents along the way. I’ve only had him two months, but he has shown plenty at home. And he’ll be better on better ground.”
Hard Rock City was ridden by Grassick’s stable-jockey Niall McCullagh who completed a double on the John Shearman-trained Ardnataggle Lad, which will now campaign in handicaps over seven furlongs or a mile, in the second division of this event.
Last year’s champion apprentice Cathy Gannon got off the mark for the 2005 season when uneasy favourite Advance Guard, a potential three-year-old hurdler according to trainer Ger O’Leary, won the first division of the Meath Handicap and then survived a Stewards Enquiry.
In the second division of this ten-furlong handicap, Padraig Beggy rode a well-judged race to bring the Declan Gillespie-trained Wildwood home a convincing winner from Supercat. The half-sister to Dolmur was unlucky when beaten at Sligo last Monday but made no mistake here, giving Beggy his fourth of the season and in-form Gillespie his sixth.
