Morph win a boost for Hassett and O'Brien

Morph Speed stayed on best to land a nice pot in the Kingdom Gold Cup at Killarney this evening.

The Richard O'Brien-trained gelding was claiming his second big prize of the summer having also landed the Cork Derby back in June.

After a mile-and-six it boiled down to a duel between the eventual winner and Camorra from a furlong-and-a-half out.

Chris Hayes got a good tune from Morph Speed inside the final furlong as he edged ahead in the closing stages to record a length win.

Morph Speed's owner, popular breeze-up consignor Johnny Hassett, has recently been undergoing lung cancer treatment in Germany after a fundraising campaign raised €277,180 and O'Brien said:-

"This means an awful lot.

“From our point of view the horse has been terrific all summer and everyone is aware of Johnny's circumstances at the moment. He has been very kind to us and it is a nice opportunity to make him feel a bit better.

"The horse is doing terrific, we'll look at Champions Weekend next and he is in a deadly vein of form. He got a cut after the Cork Derby and it took him longer to get over it than I thought. 

"This is a massive win - it's another Premier Handicap. You need a lot of horses to roll through August and September and we don't have the numbers to keep rolling, so it is nice to get this one."

(Quotes by Tom Weekes)