Manaccan & Stevie Donohoe (yellow) win from Logo Hunter © Photo Healy Racing
English raider Manaccan lunged late to land the spoils in the Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Pat Smullen Mercury Stakes at Dundalk tonight.
The juvenile Funny Money Honey took them along in the five furlong Group 3 contest but was claimed by Logo Hunter passing the furlong pole.
The John Ryan-trained Manaccan, sent to post the even-money favourite, came to trump him close home as he swooped up the stand's rail under Stevie Donohoe for a half-length win.
Exceed And Excel colt Manaccan was making it four wins this season and adding to two recent Listed successes.
Ryan said: "Obviously, you train on this stuff at home - we train on an all-weather surface and we know he is a faster-ground horse rather than a soft-ground horse. He has won on softish ground at home, but it is not his thing.
"The thing today, to start with we thought drawn two was a great draw and then as we've watched racing, they have all come over this (stands') side. I said to Stevie 'I don't know how you are going to get there, you'll probably need to think about it'.
"I don't give him too many orders, Stevie is a very professional rider and has ridden for a lot of years for me. He has ridden me a lot of good winners but not as good as that. He gave it a very professional ride.
"He showed the faith he has got in the horse, he has done a lot of work on this horse at home for us. We've got a similar sort of track at home that we train on and we have done a bit of practice with him coming around a turn on this surface.
"We knew that these guys weren't going to leave us alone, they were going to make us have it and they did. If you have got a horse that good, they need to prove it. I think we might have something very special for next year.
"Obviously, there is a bigger picture for next year and Ascot and the likes is probably where he is going to be aimed at because that is when the ground is probably going to be in his favour.
"We'll take today very happily and thank everyone for being so kind to us over here. I know everyone gets excited because the Breeders' Cup is around the corner, but it is not on my wavelength at the moment. That will be another day."
(Quotes by Michael Graham)
