Memorable day for Ryan and Brassil families
The five-year-old Westerner gelding, whose Noel Meade-trained half-brother Ally Cascade runs in Naas today, got the better of Sizing Italy in a race which saw favourite Benevolent trail in a distant last.
The winner is owned and trained by John Ryan near Templemore and was ridden by his daughter Gillian, recording the fourth success of her career and her first over hurdles and against professionals.
The Brassils will also have good reason to remember Sunday’s action in Wexford as Conor Brassil, eighteen-year-old son of Curragh trainer Martin, recorded his first win in the saddle on his father’s Celestial Prospect in the Martinstown Opportunity Handicap Hurdle.
The six-year-old Australian bred travelled strongly throughout before beating Bulletproof convincingly. Trainer Brassil said: “I was lucky enough to get him from Dermott Kelly when he finished training and he has always told me he needed decent ground, which he got today
“Obviously, it’s great for Conor and his older brother David rode his first winner, on his first ride, for Francois Coutin in France recently. I’m not sure where this horse will go, maybe Dundalk.”
Noel Meade, en route to the Sales in Newmarket, was present to saddle 8/15 shot Cops And Robbers (Paul Carberry) to land the opening Wexford Opera Maiden Hurdle, grateful for Mark Walsh’s tactics on runner-up Tobar Na Gaoise and suggesting: “He might have needed the run in Fairyhouse (last Tuesday).”
The Paul Nolan-trained Big Generator, disappointing since his bumper days and pulled up in his two previous runs over fences, recorded a popular local success under Mikey Doran in the Bettyville Park Beginners Chase.
Blinkered for the first time, the Generous gelding which Paul Nolan trains for Jim Mernagh, overcame a tendency to jump left and held the challenge of Keep It Cool by a neck.
Eoin Doyle continued his rich vein of form when Alf Wright (Mikey Butler) proved an emphatic winner of the M W Hickey Memorial Handicap Chase, slamming Code Of The West by thirteen lengths.
The Crawford brothers, Steven and Stuart, struck in the bumper when Killyglass, bound for the Brightwells Sales and backed from 7/1 to 100/30, made a successful debut.
