Killarney treble gives champion Keane a seventh 'century'

Colin Keane registered his seventh annual Irish 'century' of winners at Killarney today as the five-time champion jockey completed a treble on the John Murphy-trained Sea Chariot (100/30) in the Torc Travel Handicap.

Keane, whose best annual haul is 156 winners in 2021, began this year with three pre-season Dundalk winners and having notched his first UK Group 1 success with Tamfana on Saturday, today steered winners for trainers Johnny Murtagh, Kieran Cotter and his recent ally Murphy.

Murphy was indeed himself scoring a first success since both he and Keane won May's Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, with since sidelined star White Birch.

Reflecting on his achievement, Keane, who leads Bill Lee by 97-82 in the championship, said “I ride for some brilliant people and my agent Ruaidhri Tierney does a brilliant job.

“It was well documented we had some average horses (for retained trainer Ger Lyons) last year but he cleared them out and replaced them with what looks like a lovely bunch now. I have great people around me and recently had a good week.

“Michael O'Callaghan and Noel Meade have been very good to me and after those, Ruaidhri does a great job getting me outside rides and I've had a brilliant year. I was coming with nice rides and was hoping to get one (winner) but to get three is a bonus.”

Regarding Sea Chariot's success, the Irish Derby-winning rider added “the ground is a bit chewed up down the inner after the earlier races and that dictated the way the field went.

“The horse hasn't a whole lot of miles on the clock and today George (Murphy, trainer's son and assistant) wasn't sure about the ground and I must say for the first half-mile, neither was I. I gave him a chance to get into a nice rhythm and he came home well.

“He doesn't ride like a slow horse, he travels strong and I think a mile is a good fit for him.”