Halley enjoys winner at his local track Venture Lazarus, successful at Galway in July 2011, got on the mark at another summer festival when taking the spoils in the Sunday Business Post Handicap Hurdle at Tramore. Trained locally by Vincent Halley, the eleven-year-old Beau Venture gelding seemed to relish the patient steer he got from Andrew Lynch. The chestnut eventually got the better of favourite, Balinaboola, by a length and a half. "It's nice to have one get their head in front, we were a little bit unlucky on Thursday with Mr Picotee," reflected Halley. "He will probably go for something similar enough, obviously he will go up a bit in the weights, but he was on a nice mark today and he was entitled to do that. "He's probably better going left-handed but we said we'd take our chance today, as he had run well going right-handed before. "Ideally he would like a left-handed track and he will probably mix it between hurdles and fences. It's nice to have a winner at my local track, they've got great crowds and they've done a great job with watering all week." The Stewards interviewed D.E. Mullins, rider of Balinaboola, concerning his use of the whip in the latter stages of this race. Evidence was heard from the rider concerned. Having viewed a recording of the race and considered the evidence the Stewards found D.E. Mullins in breach of Reg. 10. 4. by failing to give his mount time to respond and having taken his record into account the Stewards cautioned the rider regarding his future whip use. D.J. Mullins, rider of Milano Express trained by P.A.Fahy, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount made a bad mistake and he suffered tack problems thereafter and pulled up. (DM & EM)
