Champagne impressive on debut

Owner Tom Quinn and trainer Stephen Mahon introduced a nice horse when their Stowaway five-year-old Champagne Harmony (7/2) trounced the opposition in the concluding T.V.O'Brien Memorial (Pro/Am) Flat Race at Galway.

Nina Carberry ranged up on Champagne Harmony coming up out of the dip, and odds-on favourite Glendine River soon had no answer.

The Mahon runner stretched clear in the straight to account for the hot-pot by six and a half lengths.

"He came to me from Thomond O'Mara," revealed Mahon.

"The third time he went up the gallop I couldn't pull him up and I said to Nina (Carberry, today) that he was a machine but on his home work you wouldn't give a fiver for him.

"He jumps really well and I had a hunter chase cert for him but don't normally send my good horses point-to-pointing. He's a chaser in the making and reminds me of Prince Of Tara (Troytown Chase winner) and that's the regard I hold him in."

(TW & EM)