Apprentices set to go to the wire in title battle

Reigning champion Gary Carroll and longtime championship leader Ben Curtis are tied on the 32 winner mark in the race for the apprentice title following their victories at Sligo yesterday.

Carroll was seen at his strongest on board both Going Gaga, which defied top-weight in the www.countysligoraces.com Nursery and Walter De La Mare, a brave all-the-way winner of the Foley’s Bar & Off Licence Sligo Handicap while Curtis gave Tom Hogan’s Raise The Rafters a fine, tactical, front-running ride to prove a shock winner of the Join The Sligo Race Supporters Club in 2011 Maiden.

Having tracked the leaders, travelling strongly, Carroll produced Going Gaga to challenge off the home turn in the nursery and, in front before the furlong-pole, the Mick Mulvany trained son of Mujadil had to dig deep in a titanic tussle with Ceist Nua, scoring by the minimum margin.