Settle For Bay and Oisin Orr © Photo Healy Racing
It was good to see the 2108 Royal Hunt Cup victor Settle For Bay (13/2 into 9/2) back to winning ways in the concluding Test Your Tipping Talents At PUNTERS.HOLLYWOODBET.COM Every Dundalk Meeting Handicap.
Oisin Orr ’s mount finished strongly down the outside to defeat Harriet’s Force (9/1) and Orchid Gardens (5/1) by a length and a half and a neck.
The 2/1 favourite Pulse Of Shanghai dropped out of contention early in the straight and was eased before finishing in rear.
The winning 6-year-old had a great spell of form at this venue in the winter of 2017 when winning four on the bounce before having his big day at Royal Ascot the following year.
It’s been a struggle for him since, but the handicapper has relented and there were encouraging signs in a recent fourth place finish on the polytrack last month.
Winning trainer David Marnane commented: "It's great to have him back. To be fair to him he's had an awful lot of problems but class is still class.
“I know he was off a good mark. The horses weren't right during the summer and he's had a good break.
“His first run was very good and he's obviously improved a lot on his second run. I fancy that he'll keep going forward now. At the moment we have no problems and that's always a good thing.
“We might look at the Hunt Cup again next year. He'll have another run of two here and we'll see where we land then.
“We're a long way from a Hunt Cup obviously but he's on the way back anyway.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
