Commander Russell in control

Davy Russell will take plenty of catching at the head of the Jump Jockeys’ Championship having moved onto the 54 winner mark for the season having completed a double on Four Commanders in the Porter & Co Beginners Chase at Down Royal today.

Four Commanders jumped particularly well in recording his three lengths win over Medical Card and winning trainer Mouse Morris was subsequently impressed, saying “he was a joy to watch!”

The first fence in the straight was bypassed on both circuits due to a low-lying sun, a fact not lost on the Gold Cup winning trainer who joked “that cost us another two lengths!” Morris, himself a top class jockey in a time when bypassing fences was an alien concept, then joked “the sun must have moved position in the last 25 years up here!”