Murtagh champion for the fifth time
Sixteen years after earning his first tile, Murtagh finished the campaign with an 83-79 advantage over six-times champion Pat Smullen, who, fittingly, landed the final event of the season,. the Leopardstown November Handicap on the Dermot Weld-trained Hidden Universe.
Line Of Battle, which stayed on in determined style to beat Alo Speranza narrowly in the listed Eyrefield Stakes, was described as “a nice horse over a distance” by trainer Oxx, who added: “There’s plenty of stamina in his pedigree and he could end up in a St. Leger.”
Earlier, once-raced Takar sprinted clear for an eight lengths win in the two-year-old colts’ maiden, prompting Oxx to comment: “He’s a horse with plenty of ability, a colt of stakes standard. He’ll start off next year at listed or Group 3 level and we’ll see where he goes from there.”
Dermot Weld was also in double form, winning the Knockaire Stakes with 16/1 shot Enchanted Evening (ridden by Pat Shanahan) and ending the season with the Leopardstown November Handicap success of Hidden Universe over Pozyc.
Weld confirmed a return to hurdling for Hidden Universe - a clash with Hurricane Fly at Leopardstown over Christmas a possibility.
The Weld team was denied further success when Unaccompanied, having her first run since the Punchestown Festival and backed down to 13/8 favouritism here before reverting to hurdling, came off second best against the Jim Bolger-trained Tobar Na Gaoise in the Book Online For Christmas Handicap.
The meeting opened with an impressive win for another exciting, Aidan O’Brien-trained two-year-old filly, Twirl, which confirmed the promise of her recent debut run, slamming Maude Adams by six-and-a-half lengths. Winning rider Seamus Heffernan said: “She learned a lot from her first run and is by the right sire (Galileo). She should have chance of making the grade next year.”
