Walsh gets off the mark over hurdles as Parrot finally takes flight
“That isn’t great, it’s brilliant”, exclaimed Walsh senior. Katie ride a copybook race, gradually working Parrot Cay into the contest.
Market-leader Ballycullen Boy got to the front before the last, but Walsh timed her effort to perfection and Parrot Cay got up close home to score by a neck.
“I have him four years, ‘tis a medal I should get”, said Ted, of a horse who was winning his first ever race at the age of seven.
“I thought he was alright, but he got jarred up one day at Naas. He has a very patient owner (Walsh’s wife, Helen)”
Goldfinger, formerly trained on the flat by Aidan O’Brien, won the Urlingford Maiden Hurdle.
Noel Meade’s 10-1 shot made no show on this track last month, but was seen in a completely different light on this occasion.
Paul Carberry bounded him out in front and the Giant’s Causeway gelding found plenty for pressure when danger threatened.
Gillian O’Brien represented Meade and said: “The blinkers helped, they made a big difference.”
Salt Lake, capable of bringing a bank to its knees, went of a heavily-backed odds-on favourite. He found nothing, however, when asked to challenge by Paddy Flood in the straight, fading away tamely to finish fourth.
The stewards inquired into the apparent improvement in form of Goldfinger and accepted the explanations offered.
Bookmakers got a screamer in the Littleton Handicap Hurdle when Tom Hogan’s out of form Sonnyanjoe scored at 20-1.
Carrigeen Kalmia, racing 38lbs below her mark over fences, went off favourite and looked the likely winner when easing ahead over the fourth last.
But she began to struggle early in the straight and had no answer to the winner, once David Flannery sent him past at the final flight.
Reported Hogan: “He’s a tough little horse, who is stuffy and hard to get fit. I wouldn’t have thought this was his ground.”
The Pat Fahy-trained Jog On landed a minor touch, 9-1 to 6’s, in the Clonoulty Handicap Hurdle.
Confidently handled by Davy Russell, the son of Kadeed came from off the pace to sweep well clear between the last two flights.
Commented Fahy: “Everything that could go wrong went wrong with him, but he came here today very well.”
For Russell it was a 69th victory of the campaign and he is a clear second behind Ruby Walsh in the jockeys’ championship.
Walsh moved his tally onto 104 when giving course and distance winner Templars Hall a powerful drive to take the Horse and Jockey Handicap Chase.
The champion-elect had gone four days without visiting the number one berth, two in England and two at home, but was in no mood to allow that situation to continue.
He drove Templars Hall for all he was worth over the concluding two obstacles to get the better of Grangehill Dancer.
Walsh was deprived of a double when Bryansford Belle had to give best to Sea Diva in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Mares Beginners Chase.
Bryansford Belle was left in front at the penultimate fence when Cloone Leader, holding a narrow advantage, toppled over, but was then worried out of it on the flat by Dessie Hughes’ charge.
James Leavy, who trains on the Curragh, produced once-raced Sophocles to shoot clear in the closing stages of the Bumper to score going away by eight lengths in the hands of Pauline Ryan.
“We bought him fairly cheaply from John Oxx”, said Leavy. “It looked like he was going to be sold to a leading Curragh trainer, but he decided he wouldn’t stay two miles.
“The bumper at Cheltenham could be next, otherwise it will be Punchestown.”
Cashmans gave Sophocles a 25-1 Cheltenham quote.
Finally, Dessie Hughes is having second thoughts about running dual champion hurdler, Hardy Eustace, in tomorrow’s Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park.
He is worried about the obvious possibility of the ground deteriorating further and will have the track walked this morning before arriving at a decision.
