O’Driscoll hails one of best ever runs from Home By The Lee
JJ Slevin on board Home By The Lee (red silks) wins ahead of Danny Gilligan on board Staffordshire Knot. Pic ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
“Up there with one of his best performances, if not his best.”
It was hard to disagree with Seán O’Driscoll’s assessment after the Cork businessman watched Home By The Lee, his pride and joy, wear down 9-4 favourite Staffordshire Knot late on to win the Grade Two John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park.
A dual Grade One winner, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Home By The Lee has done his owner proud a number of times throughout his career but, now aged 11, looked up against it here.
Staffordshire Knot travelled like the winner for much of the contest but Home By The Lee kept himself in the fight and outstayed the favourite from the back of the last.
“That was a pretty serious performance,” O’Driscoll said of the JJ Slevin-ridden 3-1 shot. “He was giving away a lot of weight, 9lb to the second, so I think it has to rank up there with one of his best performances, if not his best.
“That was a serious slog, it might have been mathematically three miles but that was a three-and-a-half mile race and two out he was only getting into it. I’m delighted with him, he deserved it. Joseph was pretty sweet on him today and I’m delighted.
“We have two five-year-olds coming out in the next couple of weeks from the same family, all with aptly-named Cork names as well. Hopefully they will do credit to him. Joseph has described him in the past as a legend and he is a legend.”
O’Brien said: “He has bundles of stamina and a great will to win and they were the two things you were going to need to win here today so I’m very proud of the horse. He’s an 11-year-old so we’ll enjoy every run that he has left. I’m really delighted to win here today, it’s a prestigious race for him and hopefully there’s more to come this season. On the figures, he’s run right up to his best today.”
A fifth bid for Stayers’ Hurdle glory at the Cheltenham Festival now beckons for Home By The Lee.
“He'll go back again,” O’Brien confirmed. “He got brought down one year when it might have been his best shot but you never know what might happen this year.”
