Sam Ewing and Game Point deliver 10-1 success for Ray Cody at Listowel
LEADING FROM THE FRONT: Game Point and Sam Ewing win the Listowel Races Supporters Club Lartigue Hurdle. Picture: Healy Racing.
Ray Cody enjoyed one of the biggest wins of his training career as Game Point ran out an impressive winner of the Listowel Races Supporters Club Lartigue Hurdle, the feature race on day five of the harvest festival.
Sent to the front early on by Sam Ewing, the 10-1 shot refused to be passed, crossing the line two and a quarter lengths in front of 3-1 favourite Ben Hur with Mino Des Mottes a further half a length back in third.
“I won this race with Razoul [in 2019] when the Healys sponsored it and a big one in Leopardstown along the way, a premier handicap [the Nasrullah with Lady Lunette in July 2024], but this is a great race to win,” Kilkenny trainer Cody said.
Game Point rocked up at Listowel on the back of an 18-length victory at Wexford last month and Cody was confident of a big run here, as long as he was kept focused on the job in hand.
“He won at a common canter the last day and the plan was always to come here. He had a lovely weight. I said to Sam going out to keep a squeeze on him early on because he can lairy and he said all the way around he was lairy, doing nothing, but he said he hit him a slap at the third last and he picked it up.
“I knew turning in that it would take a fair horse to get by him. I’m over the moon.”
A day after one Love Me Tender bolted up, another sauntered to victory in the Thorn Plant Hire Beginners Chase, the second leg of a second Listowel treble of the week for Willie Mullins.
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The German version did the business on Wednesday and the JP McManus-owned French version had little trouble emulating his namesake under Harry Cobden on Thursday.
“He did it very well and I loved the way he was like a cat, dancing in front of the fences and jumping them the way he wanted,” Mullins said.
Despite fluffing his lines on his chasing debut at Galway, Love Me Tender was sent off the 8-13 favourite and Mullins was pleased by the improvement he saw.
“In Galway he was keen but today he learned his lesson and backed off the fences and jumped them when he wanted. He learned from the first day and it was a nice performance.”
Asked about future plans, Mullins said: “Could he be a Drinmore horse? He looked to have that ability today.”
The market spoke strongly in favour of Al Arrivee ahead of the opening race, the Buckley Agri New Holland Irish EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle, and the 10-11 favourite made virtually all under Patrick Mullins.
The jockey was keen to make it a test of stamina and that proved the right approach as Al Arrivee pulled nine lengths clear of The Besty Woman with Lennon Grove back in third.
“She’s a half-sister to Al Boum Photo and I bought her with a view to breeding from her so now what I’d like to do is get a bit of black type,” the winning trainer said.
“With her pedigree she’ll stay all day. I was a bit worried that two miles around here might be a bit sharp for her so, from now on, she’ll probably go out in trip. Patrick told me that he wanted to make it a real test of stamina and we hoped her fitness and her jumping might be the key.
Berkstar completed the Closutton treble when getting the better of Bravemans Call in the Kevin McManus Bookmaker bumper.
“He had been showing me plenty at home and I'm very pleased with how he did it,” Mullins said of the 8-11 shot. “I imagine he might go jumping now rather than going for a winners’ bumper, but we'll see. I'll talk to Patrick and he'll tell me what he thinks.”
A runaway winner of a fillies’ bumper here in May, Tell The Boys made amends for last month’s Wexford mishap when justifying 7-4 favouritism in the Connolly's Red Mills Irish EBF Auction & Median Maiden Hurdle.
The Declan Queally-trained four-year-old unseated her rider after a blunder at the third last on her hurdling debut but made no mistake this time, finishing a length in front of Coolishael in the hands of Kevin Healy.
“When things didn’t work out the last day in Wexford we just said we’d plan to come here and everything went fairly smoothly,” Queally said. “We did a bit of schooling with her and it all worked out nice.”
There was a popular local success in the Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Hurdle as the Philip Rothwell-trained Kilt, ridden by Tralee jockey Ross Sugrue, proved half a length too good for 11-4 favourite Kilbrin Rocco.
“It was fantastic. He took a bit of settling for the first mile but we got there easy in the end,” the ecstatic jockey said.
“I had a winner here two years ago for Philip and he gave me my first winner point-to-pointing, my first on the track over fences and when I turned conditional a few months ago he gave me the first winner too.”
On a good day for punters, the Barry Connell-owned and trained Mart Lane justified 5-2 favouritism under Finny Maguire.
“This is my second winner from three runners this week and we stepped this horse up in trip today, which was the key to him,” Connell said.
“I think he can climb the ranks. He might even stay three miles.”
