Clear Quartz and Ronan Whelan© Photo Healy Racing
The Mark Fahey trained Clear Quartz repeated his win in the same race from two years ago when taking the concluding Caulfield Industrial Handicap at Galway.
Pushed along early to gain a prominent position from his outside stall, Ronan Whelan soon had the grey in the box seat just off the early pace set by Drop The Dip
As the latter gave way entering the straight, Whelan went second in pursuit of new leader Speckled Meadow Leading over 150 yards out, the 12/1 chance kept on strongly to win by a-length-and-a-half.
A real Galway specialist, Clear Quartz has only one failed to reach the frame from six visits to Ballybrit.
Mark Fahey said: "He missed last year through injury and we got him back at the end of the year but he just loves this place. When he ran here last October, he got wiped out of it and got no luck but today we got luck."
"Ronnie (Ronan Whelan) gave him an absolute peach of a ride from stall 14, managed to come down the inside and won the race for us."
(The race was run amidst the Olympic gold medal swim)
He quipped: "I was the only one in Galway roaring for the horse and you could have heard a pin drop with everyone watching the swimming! I started to roar and then I obviously knew that Wiffen was getting close too, as everyone was leaping around the place!
"I was the only one cheering for Clear Quartz but it is brilliant to see Galway like this. He is in again on Saturday over seven furlongs - two years ago I regretted not having him in both races so we'll see how he comes out of this. The more rain that falls the better."
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
