Successful Clonmel trip for Pádraig Roche 

UP AND OVER: Birdsandthebees and Peter Smithers, nearest, en route to winning the Clonmel Oil Chase Day November 7 Handicap Chase on Thursday. Picture: Healy Racing

Pádraig Roche sent two runners to Thursday’s meeting in Clonmel, and the Kildare trainer was on the mark with both, recording a double returning a little more than 17-1.

His Win Some Lose Some left it late to get on top in the Rathgormack Handicap Hurdle but when he got there, the Mark Walsh-ridden 100-30 favourite won with a bit to spare. Rated 116 in this race, it was a third win in just seven starts for the five-year-old who is out of a daughter of the classy Like A Butterfly, and it’s fair to deduce that there should be plenty more to come from him.

Peter Smithers was in the saddle to complete Roche’s double and he came in for plenty of praise from the trainer after Birdsandthebees put a first winning mark on her card.

While there were still plenty of runners in contention racing up the straight in the Clonmel Oil Chase Day November 7 Handicap Chase, it was abundantly clear that she was travelling best of all. After jumping the last, Smithers gave her the office and she duly moved ahead to see off Bite That and Crowsatedappletart.

“Great day,” said Roche. “I’m delighted for Peter. He gave her a great ride. He’s with me the whole time. He works very hard, is a great rider, and is only getting going now.” 

Of the mare, he added: “It’s great to win with her. I thought she would have got something by now but, for only her second run over fences, she seems to love jumping, and that might ignite a bit of a spark in her. She’s a home-bred of Noreen McManus’s and it’s great to get a winning bracket for her.” 

A tidy gamble was landed in the Crottys Lake Maiden Hurdle, in which Marlpark made all the running to land the spoils for John Ryan and jockey Shane Fitzgerald. Backed from 13-2 to 11-4 second favourite behind Elusive Prince, he jumped well when most needed and stayed on strongly to see off the challenge of the market leader.

Straight Home, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Patrick, ran out a comfortable winner of the Kilclooney Woods Qualified Riders’ Handicap Hurdle. The well-backed 5-6 favourite was never far off the pace and once switched left to get out of a pocket, the seven-year-old mare picked up well to account for Romella and the fast-finishing Duke Otto.

The complexion of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares’ Maiden Hurdle changed dramatically at the second-last hurdle, where long-time leader Cottesloe Sunshine took off far too far away from the flight, got it all wrong, and unshipped her rider. That left odds-on favourite Tareze, who was upsides the leader at that point, to gallop away to a wide-margin victory for Henry de Bromhead and Darragh O’Keeffe. There ought to plenty of improvement in the winner, who contested a Grade One on her final start of last season.

Two non-runners left the Mahon Falls Chase with just three runners, and it provided quite an easy task for the Gordon Elliott-trained Shecouldbeanything to complete her hat-trick over fences. The 4-6 favourite, who was seeking a third straight win after a novice success at Listowel and a Grade Three in Tipperary, had the company of Space Tourist most of the way but left that one behind going to the last, and won readily, by five lengths.

Winning rider Sam Ewing said: “She’s a cracking mare, so straight-forward and she’s been very good on all her starts over fences, and hopefully she can stay improving.” 

The Oliver McKiernan-trained Winding River, winner of two races over hurdles, put a first chase victory on his card when taking the Coumshingaun Handicap Chase under a well-judged ride by Phillip Enright. There were many in with chances as they raced to the final fence, but Enright sent his mount to the front at that point and rode him out up the short straight to see off Clonbury Bridge.

• The chase course was reconfigured on a test basis, with the first fence in the straight removed, leaving only one to jump in the finish. That removed fence was added up the back to have four obstacles in that section of the race.

Whether it will remain so will be the result of what happens in upcoming meetings, but there is a huge gap between the second-last and last fences, and surely for a chase, where the emphasis ought to be on jumping, that should not be the case.

Perhaps there is a case to be made for the fence not being there on quick, summer ground, but on winter ground, for proper National Hunt days, there really ought to be two fences in the straight.