Gutsy, front-running display lands the spoils for Convergence
The tough Cape Cross colt, second leg of a double for trainer Ger Lyons, made the running under Gary Carroll but looked vulnerable turning for home as his rivals tried to close.
Favourite Tested (Leigh Roche), making her seasonal debut, loomed large and soon challenged. Alongside the winner inside the final furlong, she couldn’t match Convergence close home and went down by a neck in a blanket-finish, with British raider Sovereign Debt a close third.
This was a third stakes-race success for Convergence, winner of listed events at Tipperary (last August) and Dundalk (in April).
“We are really delighted,” declared Shane Lyons, brother and assistant to the winning trainer (who was in Ascot) “Vincent and Geraldine Gaul are dream owners. They’ve been with us from the start and take bad news as easily as good news.
“This horse could have gone to Ascot for the Jersey, but Vincent decided he’d prefer to win this, a race we won for him with An Tadh (in 2006), rather than go to Ascot and finish fourth or fifth there.
“This horse has a massive heart and wants lightning fast ground, like that. He has a massive heart. This was the immediate target, so we’ll enjoy it before we make plans,” he explained.
“That justified Ger’s decision not to sell him in the Goffs Sale in London on Monday night,” stated Lyons after Cape Wolfe defied top-weight under Colin Keane in the Leopardstown Summer Music And Racing Festival Handicap to initiate the double for the Glenburnie yard.
The Piccolo gelding got the better of Lily’s Rainbow by a length and Lyons added: “He got a lot of confidence from getting his head in front for the first time in Dundalk - he loves that fast ground. Colin feels there could be a nice one in him.”
Less than two weeks after registering his first stake-race success (on Ascot Gold Cup runner-up Kingfisher in the Saval Beg Stakes), Donnacha O’Brien brought his career tally to 20 and lost his 7lb. claim when Painted Cliffs captured the opening two-year-old maiden.
Having disputed the lead with favourite Mint Chai, the Canford Cliffs colt asserted turning for home and kept going well to beat Sikandarabad by a length and a quarter, the pair pulling twelve lengths clear of the remainder.
O’Brien commented: “He was very green at the Curragh, but was a lot more professional here. He loves that ground and should continue to improve.”
Having saddled his first winner at Leopardstown last week, Brendan Duke struck again when the Rory Cleary-ridden Vocal Heir, 10/1 outsider of the six runners, foiled favourite Shabra Emperor by a head in the Hot Sprockets Handicap.
“We’ll never need a star to hang on her door, but she should win again,” commented Duke.
