Cherry-ripe Berkley hits target again

PAT VERLING produced Berkley cherry-ripe after a long, tough season to land the featured Killarney 250 Handicap Chase as another good crowd turned out in the sunshine at the Kerry track yesterday evening.

Kilworth rider John Allen got the eight-year-old gelding to the front two out in this two and three-quarter miles event, and the combination stayed on gamely to beat long-time leader Prince Of Pleasure by three and a half lengths.

“He never runs a bad race, and the main thing is to keep him fresh. If the weather dries up we'll leave him off for a while, and I'm looking forward to next season when he'll be high enough to get into the good staying handicaps. He's gone up over 30lbs since winning at this meeting last year,” said Verling.