Diamond finally sparkles
McConnell, who trains little more than two miles from the track, triumphed with the previously consistent but luckless Rockview Diamond in the opening five-furlong two-year-old maiden and Black N Brew, which defied top-weight in a division of the www.citynorthhotel.com Handicap.
And Lyons, whose string has hit top form in recent weeks, provided Carrickmacross-based owner Sean Jones with his 50th winner when Red Army Blues got up on the line to win the sprint handicap before Dark Passion, in the same colours, landed a tidy gamble (7/2 to 7/4) in the mile two-year-old maiden.
Rockview Diamond, runner-up in his last three starts, gave Shane Foley his fourth win in three days when justifying favouritism in the opener, coming through to beat She’s My Dandy and prompting McConnell to comment: “Shane said he had plenty in the tank but he only does enough — we might give him a snip!
“That was overdue. It’s great win at your local track. He’ll probably run in the Tattersalls Sales race in Fairyhouse.”
McConnell struck again when Black N Brew, ridden by Gary Carroll, proved too strong for the flattering Philosophers Guest in a division of the mile handicap, the trainer admitting: “This has been the plan for a while and it’s nice when it comes off ”
First-time blinkers helped Red Army Blues belatedly opened his account in the five-furlong Essential Drogheda Magazine Handicap, Keagan Latham’s mount pipping Expire by the minimum, margin.
Winning trainer Ger Lyons said: “He’s really a six-furlong horse, but is beginning to grow up and did a professional job today.”
And, after Dark Passion came home strongly under Johnny Murtagh to deny The Firm in the mile juvenile maiden, Lyons added: “He’s a lovely colt and Johnny liked him from the first time he sat on him. He’s learning all the time, but is still quite green. We might go to Galway with him.”
Table Forty Six continued Ken Condon’s rich vein of form when, ridden by the trainer’s wife Pauline Ryan, he made all to land the Fast Shipping Ireland Race while morning gamble Tantalising, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells, earned a valuable bracket when foiling the Ger Lyons-trained El Gran Torino in the Patrick Tallan & Co. Solicitors Maiden.
Trainer Muredach Kelly found himself in hot water with the stewards following the running of San Jose City in the five-furlong handicap won for the second time in four years by the Dick Donohoe-trained Mt Weather.
Kelly was found guilty of not running the horse on its merits and fined €1,000 while jockey Andrew Thornton was suspended for ten race-days. The horse was also banned for forty-two days.
