Hayes inspired on Solo Performer
Hayes brought his tally to 36 thanks to victories on Paul Deegan’s Approval Given, which pipped Wholelotofrosie by a nose in the two-year-old maiden, and Solo Performer, which continued trainer Harry Rogers’s rich vein of form, under an inspired front-running ride, in the www.thetote.com Handicap.
Rory Cleary, an important part of Jim Bolger’s team at Coolcullen, landed the five-furlong Glebe House Stud Nursery on top-weight All Ablaze, trained nearby in The Naul by Damian English. Cleary picked-up a two-day whip ban.
But he followed-up when the James Barrett-trained Speed Dream came from off the pace to thwart top-weight Big Bad Lily in the first division of the Lougher Stables Handicap over five furlongs,
Eight-year-old Speed Dream was recording his third career success, having previously triumphed for David Wachman (as a two-year-old) and Mark Loughnane (2010).
Jim Gorman provided the Foley family with a 53/1 double, thanks to the battling performances of Liberty To Rock and Rigid Rock.
Liberty To Rock, described by his trainer as “a good ground horse” and set to return to Dundalk, got the better of the flattering and frustrating Kalacan in the Meath Handicap, giving champion apprentice elect Ronan Whelan, having his first ride at Bellewstown, his eighteenth win of the season.
Declan McDonogh partnered Rigid Rock to victory in the second division of the Lougher Stables Handicap to complete the Gorman/Foley double.
In the finale, the Hilltown (Amateur) Race, the versatile seven-year-old Blackstairmountain, backed from 1/4 to 1/7 to repeat a course and distance win early last month, gave his supporters plenty of anxious moments before asserting under Patrick Mullins to beat the Nina Carberry-ridden Parramatta by a length and three-quarters.
