Shanoe gains poignant repeat win in Rockshore Race

Shanroe has proved a great servant to trainer Karl Thornton and landed the Rockshore Refreshingly Irish Race for the second successive year at Galway.

The nine-year-old was a 15/2 shot overnight but the combination of sustained support and the absence of likely market leader Dawn Rising saw him go off the 15/8 favourite.

Robbie Colgan ’s mount got a nice run up in the inner in the straight to join a trio of Willie Mullins-trained runners at the furlong pole and he proved strongest in the closing stages to score by half-a-length from Mt Leinster

An emotional Thornton said afterwards, “It's sad as the owner Brian passed away last September, it's hard that way because he's a cousin of mine and his wife sadly misses him. He was a great man and loved this horse and he would have loved this.

“He loved him and was a great man for the game. He took bad news really well, he was a real shrewd, good man and he's just gone too soon. He was a great man to have around the place.

“He finds plenty, he's tough. Robbie realised they didn't go hard and didn't know whether to go on and then it was tactical.

“You always have to respect Willies'. It was a good race, it was a proper race for here and a good race for no money as the man says!

“The rain came, he's not the easiest to train but when he's right he's good.

“I threw him into the Shergar Cup in Ascot next week but he'll be last to get into it as it's a 0-100 and he's 102. We'll see, he might go there. If not he might go back to York on the Wednesday for the two-mile.

“Last year the ground went a bit quick for him on the Saturday (in the Ebor) and it was probably the wrong thing to do (run him) but we were there. It was a good thing in a way because that was the last time Brian seen him.

“He's brilliant, he's the best horse I've ever had. He's a classy horse, I just need a few more of them.

“He knows he's good and he's spoilt rotten. He's nine but he won his bumper when he was five so he doesn't have much mileage either.”

The veteran gelding was recording a tenth career win which includes a Premier Handicap at the Curragh in 2021 and he was also placed behind Sonnyboyliston in the Ebor later that year.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson