Truly Delightful, far side, edges out Muntasaf at Listowel© Photo Healy Racing
Truly Delightful and Muntasaf raced head to head throughout the mile maiden at Listowel and the pair fought out a tremendous finish with the former prevailing by a neck.
Fran Berry on board the winner hugged the rail throughout and the 12/1 shot fought well all the way to the line to hold Chris Hayes and Muntasaf.
This was the second year in-a-row that Muntasaf has been runner-up during the Harvest Festival at Listowel. He hadn’t run since that outing last year and bookmakers couldn’t give him away today as he opened at 11/8 earlier today and drifted right out to 7/2 on the off. He was running for Andrew Oliver having been with Dermot Weld last year.
Jubilant trainer Thomas Cleary said: “It was a nice win and not totally surprising as she loves that soft ground and I was glad to see the rain come.
“She was down as low as 53, but I had faith in her. I would have been happy with being in the first three today, but I’m truly delighted!
“She’ll go handicapping now. She’s entered tomorrow, but we don’t need to run her now.
“It’s an emotional win as Fran’s aunt Carmel Fay passed away a short time ago. She was a great racing fan and her brother Paddy Berry is one of the owners.”
Punters steamed into Paul Hickey’s Deep Speed (6/4f) who was looking to step up on third and second place finishes. He chased the front two down the home straight in third, but wasn’t able to get on terms and lost that spot to Shipyard (7/1) who ran on well to give a place dividend to those who backed him down from 14s before racing.
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
