Tasty 55/1 treble for O’Brien and a two-day ban
But O’Brien only increased his lead over Pat Smullen by one, 71-68, thanks to a double for the former champion on Consonance and Three Kingdoms.
The twice-raced Chamonix, which beat Galway Plate victor Bob Lingo in Killarney, proved a facile winner of the listed Oyster Stakes, taking command at the top of the hill before galloping on relentlessly to slam stable-companion Demurely by six lengths.
O’Brien, in trouble with the stewards for forcing his way through on the inside of Macbeth (Shane Foley) at the seven-furlong pole, described Chamonis, a strapping son of Galileo, as “a big, green colt, tough and genuine, that stays well.”
The one-eyed Eye Of The Storm, another Galileo colt, had initiated Joseph’s treble, and a double for Aidan, in the opening Donnelly’s Of Barna 2-Y-0 Maiden, picking up well off the home-turn to beat front-running Pearl Of Africa by almost three lengths.
“He only has one eye and that was a nice introduction,” commented the winning rider.
“He should improve from the experience and will be better on nice ground.”
Cairdiuil, trained locally by Iggy Madden and narrowly denied at the Festival, was the middle leg of O’Brien’s treble, landing the Paschal Corrigan Memorial Handicap in spectacular style by seven lengths, prompting Madden to state: “He likes this place. The Killarney race was messy the last day. And it looked as if the others came back to him today, but he kept galloping.”
In response to the O’Brien treble, Pat Smullen partnered Joe Murphy’s Consonance to a gutsy win over longshot Crystal Wings in the James P Cunningham Handicap.
And Smullen followed-up when Three Kingdoms, unsuited by the track and drying ground at Clonmel last Thursday, made every yard of the running to slam his five rivals in the finale, the Renmore Maiden.
“He enjoyed himself in front, handled the ground and stayed at it well,” was Smullen’s summing-up of the performance by the Sheikh Mohammed-owned son of Street Cry, which beat Faanan Aldaar by nine and a half lengths.
Having saddled three beaten favourites in the earlier action, Dermot Weld was on his way home and missed seeing Leyland, ridden by Tuam-born Leigh Roche, holding off Valbucca in the Galway Apprentice Handicap, first leg of a stable double, complete by Three Kingdoms.
Dick Donohoe savoured a rare two-year-old success when Wholelotofrosie, owned by the Backkitchen Syndicate from Kilkenny, made all to deny uneasy favourite Cocktail Hour in the Irish Stallion Farms Median Auction 2-Y-0 Fillies Maiden. Ridden by Ben Curtis, the Choisir filly dictated the pace and had market leaders Cocktail Hour and Nurpur in trouble before the straight. Responding to the urgings of Ben Curtis, Donohoe’s charge kept going to hold the renewed effort of the favourite by a head before surviving a belated Stewards Enquiry.
“She ran a cracker in Bellewstown and deserved a change of luck,” said Donohoe.
“She’’ as game as a pebble and loves soft ground.”
