Lios An Eolais springs 100/1 Guinness shocker
And there was no fluke about it either!
The winner, who had been involved in an extraordinarily messy first round heat behind runaway winner Student Pass, was fast away from his inside berth as both Historic Moment and Student Pass on his right were slowly into stride.
Lios An Eolaid led the reserve Jesceda Lad, in for Hi Tip (sick), into the opening bend. He had pulled three lengths clear by halfway and then hung on very tenaciously in the closing stages as Jesceda Lad closed with every stride in the last hundred yards. The Padraig Regan trained winner held on the by the minimum margin in 28.87 with Student Pass a length back in third.
The race wasn't the complete skinner for the layers that one might imagine however. One of the leading bookmakers at the track laid a bet of 10 at 100/1 and two separate bets of 5 at the same price!
Meanwhile Fat Budgie, who turned in a below par effort in his opening round heat, found his wings again to take flight in heat 2.
The winner made all comfortably. He was chased to halfway by Longvalley Homer before Civil Rights tookover as his main pursuer. He too could make no impression as the Paul Hennessy trained Fat Budgie eased to a three and a half length success in 28.59.
Charity dog Deejay Ninetysix took the scenic route to success in heat 3.
Asian De Vieri was fast away here and led into the bend. DeeJay Ninetysix ran very wide between bends but had gone a clear second by halfway. He reeled in the pacemaker between the last two bends and, despite running wide up the straight, came home a comfortable two length winner over the fast finishing Sinabhfuilbertie in 28.67.
The Denis Fitzgerald trained winner is owned by Cork 96FM DJ Ken Tobin and all his winning go to the Irish Guide Dogs For The Blind Association. To date Deejay Ninetysix has been in the money in seven of his eight races, winning three of them.
Mustang Okee, who won at Clomnel since his first round Guinness heat, duly justified 5/4 favouritism in heat 4 where Cashmans ante-post favourite Tyrur Daryl (injured) was a significant non runner.
The Dermot Ferncombe trained winner passed the reserve, Pencil Pusher, on the inside at the third bend and quickly asserted to eventually beat the running on Trumpers Jack by five and a half lengths in 28.51.
The trap to line sectionals of Saturday's winners were: Lios An Eolais (3.44); Fat Budgie (3.37); Deejay Ninetysix (3.42); Mustang Okee (3.41)
The trap draw for Saturday's semi-finals, with Cashmans betting, is:
First semi-final: 1 Trumpers Jack (25); 2 Civil Rights (33); 3 Goblet of Fire (9/2) ; 4 Asian De Vieri (16); 5 Fat Budgie (5); 6 Deejay Ninetysix (w) (16)
Second semi-final: 1 Student Pass (2); 2 Pencil Pusher (50); 3 Jesceda Lad (8); 4 Lios An Eolais (66); 5 Sinabhfuilbertie (w) (14); 6 Mustang Okee (w) (5)
