Whelan makes all aboard Clynch

Ronan Whelan partnered his second winner when the well-backed 5/2 chance Puncher Clynch took the featured Irish Stallion Farms EBF Premier Nursery - the Azamour colt making all for his sixteen-year-old rider in the mile event and holding off the late surge of Joshua Tree by three quarters of a length.

A stewards enquiry was called after the runner-up hit the railing approaching the straight and then had to be switched right to challenge when squeezed for room in the final furlong as the Jim Bolger-trained winner edged left under pressure. The placings remained unaltered.

Ruari O'Coileain, representing the winning owner/breeder's Ennistown Stud, said, “He won at Galway where the conditions were unbelievably tough, so we knew he'd stay today. He's a gutsy horse, and Ronan gave him a great ride.”

O'Coileain also revealed that the juvenile is named after Seamus Clynch, a member of the Meath minor football team of 1958.