‘We never expected anything like this’
John Carr’s Sublimity had done it at Cheltenham, but yesterday it was the turn of Harry Rogers’ eight-year-old, and even the trainer confessed to being taken aback by the level of performance Silent Oscar produced under a fantastic ride from Grand National hero Robbie Power to beat 7/4 favourite Macs Joy.
He wasn’t the only one, as the weight of punters’ money decreed there were only four runners in the eight horse contest. Macs Joy, Iktitaf, Hardy Eustace and Harchibald were the only horses with any degree of support in the field, with Callow Lake, Sweet Wake, Strangely Brown and Silent Oscar largely unfancied in the betting ring.
“I had hoped to pick up a few bob in prizemoney,” Rogers confessed. “This is definitely a surprise,” he said. “The plan always was to come here, but we never expected anything like this. The ground was the key to the win and that’s why we took a chance here. He wants good ground and that’s what we got today.”
Owner Pat Convery, from the GAA stronghold of Lavey in Co. Derry, was perhaps even more shell-shocked than his trainer and when he shook his head and said “I simply can’t believe it,” you knew he wasn’t joking.
He has owned Silent Oscar for three years now, although it was only this season that he sent him to Louth handler, and he says that while the horse beat Macs Joy on the flat at the Curragh just two weeks ago, he never envisaged being able to lead him into the winners’ enclosure at Punchestown.
“We’ve had to be very patient with him because the ground is the secret to him and we haven’t really had his ground at all this year. But he proved himself today and if it was a bit of a surprise, well, I’ll take that.
“Even when he wasn’t running on ground that suited him, Robert always looked after him and he gave him a great ride today to hold off Macs Joy,” the trainer said.
The jockey said his mount was travelling sweetly throughout a race in which the aim had been to track the front-running Hardy Eustace and see where that took him.
“Hardy didn’t run as fluently as you’d expect when the pressure came on,” Power reported, “so I had to take it up about two out which was a bit sooner than expected. I thought I’d be fighting for a place when Macs Joy came up on my outside and got his head in front, but I gave my fella a kick and he just kept going all the way to the line. He was real tough out there.”
Convery reckons that Lavey might now become a horsey stronghold as much as a football bastion, especially as many of those in the small Derry hamlet would have had a few bob on his horse, but he thinks everyone will be as shocked as he was with the result.
“I hadn’t told everyone he was going to win or anything, just to back him each way, so I hope they did.”
Asked how much Silent Oscar had cost him, he laughed and said: “I can’t tell you, the wife’s listening.”
Whether or which, Mrs. Convery will undoubtedly be delighted with the €€120,000 prizemoney coming into the household as a result of her husband’s investment, not to mention the undoubted share of the bookies’ money which saw the horse shorten from 50/1 yesterday morning to his 20/1 starting price.
For the majority of the punters, however, the race was another hurdling bloodbath. With favourites getting beaten at seemingly ever turn this season, the Punchestown Champion Hurdle proved no different.
Jessica Harrington reported that while Macs Joy had put up a “bloody good show” and run his heart out, she said she had probably not trained him hard enough for what was asked of him yesterday.
Hardy Eustace, who battled into third place, will now be sent to grass for the summer before being prepared for a campaign in staying hurdles next year and Dessie Hughes reckoned that his performance was as good as could be expected given the hold-up he had in his work in the run-up to this race.
Noel Meade’s big race nightmare continued and neither Iktitaf nor Harchibald showed the sort of form of which they are capable.
But the feelgood story was that of Silent Oscar and his slightly disbelieving connections. Next up is the two-and-a-half mile Gold Cup at Ascot if the ground doesn’t come up firm and who knows, maybe Silent Oscar has a few more shocks left in him.
