Front-running tactics pay off for Mullins and Treacy
Sent off 11/4 favourite, Sammy Black, in the colours of Barry Connell, made all to win the €30,000 McHale Mayo National in convincing style while Kilcarry Bridge provided 7lb. claimer Ryan Treacy with the biggest win of his career when adopting similar front-running tactics successfully in the McHale Coranna Handicap Hurdle.
Runner-up to You Must Know Me in Killarney, Sammy Black dictated the pace under Danny Mullins, jumped adequately and, at the business end, stayed on strongly to score by five and a half lengths from Shamiran, with Love Rory third.
Tony Mullins commented: “I thought he was going a bit quick in front. But he was foot-perfect, with one exception, and, when he gets into a rhythm, he’s a lovely horse. I suppose he deserved to do what he did after his Killarney run.”
Mullins is uncertain about immediate plans for the six-year-old. “I have the Galway Plate half in my mind, but Barry is thinking about the ‘Paddy Power’ at Leopardstown and the Thyestes. So we’ll have to sit down and discuss plans and whether he’s going out to grass or not. But he’ll be going for some of those good staying handicaps.”
Earlier, recent Sligo winner Kilcarry Bridge and Ryan Treacy forced the pace to good effect in the McHale Coranna Handicap Hurdle to beat Mrs MacVeale convincingly.
“I really fancied him today,” declared delighted trainer John Ryan, “He needed the run in Sligo and he was in tip-top form coming here. He’s a lovely horse and we’ll probably think about Galway — he’ll have to go up a bit to get into the Galway Hurdle, but the longer race on the Saturday might suit him.”
The colours of champion owner JP McManus were in the winner’s enclosure three times on a hugely successful evening for the Co Mayo track. Aidan O’Brien and Robbie Power provided him with a hurdle double thanks to favourites Plinth and King Leon before the Christy Roche-trained Lethal Weapon notched his first win over fences in the Martinstown Opportunity Handicap Chase, when left clear by the last fence fall of favourite Lady Olwyn.
Plinth, a red-hot 1/5 favourite, landed the odds in the opening McHale Fusion 3 Hurdle, beating Ningbo Express by a length and a half and, according to Frank Berry, will go for a ‘winners of two’ in the coming weeks, possibly in Bellewstown.
And King Leon made all to win the McHale Fusion Vario Maiden Hurdle, beating Keppols Queen, prompting Berry to comment: “It was hard work but he got there. He needs that sort of trip and is big enough to jump a fence.”
Odds-on players had to sweat before the Gordon Elliott-trained four-year-old Arzembuoy Premier (Barry Geraghty) got the better of Smokey Joe Joe in the concluding beginners chase, denying Co Galway trainer Steve Mahon, successful earlier with the Robbie Colgan-ridden mare Lost Book in the handicap hurdle, a double.
