Sindjara promises of better to come with maiden win
On a rare visit to the County Louth venue, John Oxx stated: “She liked the surface and won well,” after the Aga Khan-owned Sindjara, a daughter of Include, recorded a smooth success in the two-year-old fillies maiden.
“She had a little setback since her run in Leopardstown and I thought she might need the run tonight.
“She’ll be put away now and might come back here in the spring. She should stay well next season.”
Murtagh completed his double when Billyford provided trainer Liam Roche with his first win since May 2008, readily outpointing He’s Got Rhythm in the bookings@dundalksstadium.com Rated Race. Roche commented: “He was off for almost three years and is coming back to himself. He loves it around here and will be coming back. We might bring him to Kempton in the New Year.”
Just as he did last week, local trainer Harry Rogers completed a double with Elusive Ridge (Pat Smullen) in the one-mile handicap and Solo Performer which landed the five-runner mile-and-a-half handicap.
Both horses might return to Dundalk next Friday, Elusive Ridge (“the faster the ground the better” according to Rogers) for a one-mile conditions event and Solo Performer, on which Chris Hayes excelled, for another similar handicap.
Although up 17lb. for two recent wins on the track, the Mick Byrne-trained Knockgraffon Lad completed a quick hat-trick in great style under apprentice Colin Keane in the finale.
Having run keenly throughout and encountering traffic problems in the straight, the progressive four-year-old came through to beat favourite Word For Word convincingly, prompting Byrne to comment: “He’s improving all the time and, if he’s not sold, he’ll come back here for an amateur race on the thirteenth of January.”
Eddie Lynam quipped: “Well done Billy, you didn’t lose it,” as he greeted Westtower Boy and Billy Lee in the winner’s enclosure after the Group Bookings At Dundalk Rated Race, reference to Lee’s win on his first day back in action after a three-month absence, caused by broken ribs and a punctured lung sustained in a fall on this track in September.
