SnowflakeDancer delivers at Dundalk

COOLMORE sire Dylan Thomas made an immediate impact with his first runner, Snowflake Dancer, which prevailed in a blanket finish to the opening two-year-old maiden at Dundalk last night, and then survived a Stewards Enquiry.

Snowflake Dancer is trained by Jim Bolger for Mrs June Judd, the connections responsible for Whip Rule, awarded the first two-year-old event of the season in the Stewards Room at the Curragh on Sunday.

And, like Whip Rule, the Dylan Thomas colt was strongly ridden by Kevin Manning, who had the colt in the firing-line throughout before keeping on gamely to hold the Richard Fahey-trained One Kool Dude (with Declan McDonogh deputising for the absent Paul Hanagan) by the minimum margin.

The Ger Lyons-trained favourite Bible Black encountered terrible traffic problems in a rough race and finished a very unlucky fifth.

The Bolger/Manning combination was on the mark again when Gleadhradh kept the Fran Berry-ridden favourite Balmont Mast at bay by a head in the Crown Plaza Race & Stay Package Median Auction Maiden.

Having his second run, the Chevalier colt edged past front-runner President Lincoln with a furlong and a half to race before holding Balmont Mast, giving Bolger and Manning their third success of the fledgling season.

Michael Halford, in Dubai to saddle Invincible Ash in the Group 2 Al Quoz Sprint in Meydan today, missed seeing Barrow Island justify 5/4 favouritism in the one-mile Dundalk Stadium on Facebook Maiden, winning by two lengths from Hot Sand.

Well-backed all day, Barrow Island was building on a number of solid placed efforts last season, including a second to Unaccompanied at Galway.

The Willie McCreery-trained Big Tex landed a tidy on-course gamble when making all to give Joseph O’Brien his first success of the new season in the dundalkstadium.com Handicap. O’Brien needs one more winner to have his claim reduced to 3lb.

Backed from 25/1 to 10/1, the Captain Rio gelding held the late surge of Ger Lyons’ Red Army Blues (Keagan Latham) by a short-head.

Fran Berry made a gallant effort to make all on Macnas in the six-furlong [e-mail] Handicap but had to give best inside the final, furlong to the Colm O’Donoghue-ridden Bubbly Bellini, a first winner of the new campaign for trainer Ado McGuinness.

Shock of the night came in the Fundraising Made Easy at Dundalk Handicap when Paul Townend got 25/1 shot Opening Nite home a narrow winner over King’s Bastion and Scary Movie in a three-way photo-finish.

Consistent but unlucky on many occasions last season, King Of Aran got his head in front in the finale, the Dundalk On Facebook Handicap, when scraping home by a neck from Isabellareine in a blanket-finish which saw the first eight covered by two lengths.

The result remained unchanged after a Stewards Enquiry.