The Edward O’Grady trained Slieveardagh got the ‘rub of the green’ when winning the Packie Downey Memorial Chase at Tipperary this afternoon, benefiting from the falls of two leaders at the second last fence. Gracchus (Paul Carberry) and Royal Choice (Davy Russell) both appeared to have the race between them at that point but both leaders dramatically fell independently of each other, leaving Slieveardagh, under Pat Mangan, to score a fortunate 14 lengths win over Kilflora

Slieveardagh’s stablemate Out Now was sent off the 3/1 favourite but disappointed in fourth place. After ards O’Grady said “excuse the pun, but things fell into place for Slieveardagh today! It was the right result for us although not necessarily in the right order.”

He added “Slieveardagh cut his leg in his last hurdle run at Killarney and while it was his first run back and his first run over fences, he jumped well. He was a good hurdler and should now make a nice chaser - we’ll probably go for a winners’ race at Galway next.”

O’Grady, aided by a walking stick and suffering with a bad back, was rueing his recent endeavours on the farm and joked “I’m getting too old for saving hay I think!”

Thomas Weekes