Kearney picks up winning spare on Kudbegood

Pat Murphy and Jack Kearney teamed up to take division two of the William Hill Pick Your Places Apprentice Handicap at Dundalk with Kudbegood

The seven-year-old gelding has had a number of trainers over his career and won twice for John McConnell also over this mile two years ago.

Kearney was a late replacement for Jake Coen (unwell) on the son of Most Improved, who joined Murphy’s yard earlier this year.

The 12/1 shot made headway in the straight and kept on well up the centre of the track to get the better of 2/1 favourite Miss Abby Jools by three quarters of a length. Bellick outran odds of 50/1 just half a length further back in third.

Murphy said, "Jack stepped into a good ride there. The horse just seemed to grow a leg up here and showed a good turn of foot.

"We were worried about him during the summer, we couldn't get a tune out of him. We said we would just wait for Dundalk and see would it rejuvenate him.

"We'll give him a little bit of a campaign (in Dundalk) now, we'll see how it goes. He's on the go a good while. He got a little bit of a break after the last day so we'll see how long we keep him going.

"He slipped down a bit and he is at a level he can compete with."

Quotes by Michael Graham