Listowel report: Easy Game completes hat-trick

Stand Up And Fight was also victorious on the card

Mon, 06 Jun, 2022 - 18:12

Tommy Lyons

The feature on the bank holiday card in Listowel was the John J Galvin Chase and while conditions were more testing than ideal for long odds-on favourite Easy Game, Willie Mullins’ charge had little trouble completing his hat-trick for the year.

Now a winner of eight of his 19 starts over fences and 12 of his 30 in total, he fell a little short of the top level but peaked with a rating of 161. Still capable of running to a mark close to that, he faced inferior rivals this time and that allowed Paul Townend to dictate throughout. Born By The Sea kept him honest, but the Nick Peacock-owned winner was never in much danger.

“This race was a good find for him, and he’s a consistent horse and a lovely horse to be associated with,” said the winning rider. “He has been a good fun horse for his owner.

“He hasn’t enjoyed the ground today, but he has the class and was in his comfort zone at all stages, dawdling around in front and having a look at everything. If I needed him, there were big jumps there, but the risk-reward for a fancy picture wasn’t there for me, I didn’t think.

“He’s a smashing horse. He’s a horse that takes a bit of time between his runs, but Willie just freshened him up and he was fit.”

Just like Easy Game, Stand Up And Fight was a winner at the May meeting in Killarney and he, too, completed the Kerry double with an easy success in the Join The Listowel Races Supporters’ Club Hunters’ Chase. Ridden by Aine O’Connor for Enda Bolger, the 10-year-old effectively toyed with the opposition on his way to the fifth victory in his career.

“His jumping wasn’t as good today as it can be — he was a little bit sticky early on, but he got better as he went on,” said O’Connor. “I actually find, with my fella, if you bully him too much he tends to say ‘no’, so I try to cajole him along as much as possible.”

Mind Your Money, ridden by Harry Swan and having his first run for Timmy Hyde, got off the mark in the Nora Canty Mares’ Maiden Hurdle.

An experienced sort reverting to a maiden following a couple of runs in handicap company, the six-year-old mare hit the front between the last two and stayed on well to see off Katherine and odds-on favourite Nos Na Gaoithe, whose lack of fluency over her obstacles proved costly.

“I didn’t think she’d handle the ground, but she handled it perfectly,” said Swan. “She quickened away from the last and won well. She’s a lovely mare, and she is in foal to Walk In The Park.”

Donagh Meyler is enjoying a good spell and he put another on the board by guiding the Denis Hogan-trained Desert Friend to victory in the John B Keane Maiden Hurdle. Runner-up in a similar race on his hurdling debut at the Harvest Festival here in September, the 10-1 chance was having his first run of the year but it was far from evident as he coasted clear up the straight for a facile success.

“It’s easy to ride them when they’re doing that,” said Meyler, before adding: “The hardest thing is getting on them, but things are going well at the moment, and we’ll try to keep the ball rolling when we get back from the break.”

Navigator Jack made most of the running in the Mike Lawlee Memorial Handicap Hurdle. Well beaten in all starts since a promising start in a bumper at this venue in September, this represented a step in the right direction for Eoin Griffin’s horse, and he gave the impression he could step up from this.

“It has taken a while for the penny to drop with him, over hurdles,” said Griffin. “Mark (McDonagh) gave him a good ride from the front and got the breather into him at the right time, and he hung on. He has a decent engine if he gets everything together, and he’ll keep going as he’s a summer horse.”

Molly Wedger, trained in Dungarvan by Dermot O’Brien, ran out a good winner of the Bryan MacMahon Handicap Hurdle. Following a promising return in Limerick, she was well beaten in competitive handicaps at Punchestown before her recent run at Killarney signalled a return to winning ways was imminent.

Twice a winner last season, this was a career-best effort as she responded well to Brian Hayes’ encouragement to beat the staying-on Summer Tide. A return trip to the Galway festival, where she was just touched off last year, is on the cards for the mare and her ebullient owners, the 13-strong Kilbriens Syndicate.

On a day on which Killarney form stood up particularly well, Hot As Pepper went one place better than when runner-up at the other Kerry track when she contested the Dr Louis O’Carroll Bumper. Ridden positively by Ben Harvey, John McConnell’s point-to-point winner found plenty for pressure to assert in the closing stages, with newcomer On The Sixth Day running a race full of promise to take the runner-up spot.