Walhaan (right) and Ben Coen © Photo Healy Racing
Ben Coen partnered his first winner since returning from a broken collarbone at Naas last Sunday as Walhaan pounced late in the Floodlit Fridays At Dundalk Handicap.
The grey son of Dark Angel has proved a great servant to connections and was making it five wins in the space of just over 18 months, three of which have been gained at this venue.
The front-running Gesture was headed by 10/11 favourite Psalm early in the straight and the odds-on shot was in turn pressed by Walhaan inside the final furlong.
The pair pulled clear of the remainder with Coen’s mount just getting up on the line to score by a head at odds of 5/1.
Gesture was 11 lengths back in third.
Winning trainer Ciaran Murphy said, "We said we were going to have one shot at him (Psalm) and we weren't going to do the donkey work today. Ben said 'I'll have one go at him' and it worked lovely.
"What a genuine horse to go to battle with, he's been very good.
"It is something that we would always be thinking about - swapping the headgear around and bits and pieces. We took the headgear off him there for a couple of runs and he ran a couple of crackers.
"I just felt the last day he was waiting a bit for them, so thinking about it during the week we said we would put the cheekpieces on. He only had them on once.
"We just put Ben up. Darragh (O'Sullivan) has done a brilliant job on him, he has done nothing wrong. We just said we would go for a bit more experience today in what we thought was going to be a tactical race.
"Ben said he moved beautifully down to the start, he said he gave him some feel. He said they went a true gallop and he said at the furlong pole he thought he had a chance. He didn't say he was going to win, but he thought he had a chance. He said he really battled for him then.
"I would say he'll come back here. We will let him freshen up again as he likes to be fresh.
"That's his career-high mark he is after winning off as an eight-year-old. From the horse's point of view, it is thumbs up to him. It is impressive. He is thriving on his work."
Quotes by Michael Graham
