The domestic evening racing circuit got underway in brilliant sunshine at Cork yesterday with the featured Dairygold Cork Sprint Stakes going to the John Oxx-trained Namid and John Murtagh.
The six furlong contest lost some of its gloss before racing when Ballydoyle representative and likely favourite Rossini was deemed a non-runner due to a stone bruise.
Dermot Weld's Timote started at the head of affairs in the betting ring but had no answer when Lady Clague's four-year-old colt swept past her at the distance to score by a length from recent Curragh scorer, Desert Magic. The market leader finished back in fifth.
'He's a good horse and we've always liked him. This is his best trip, he's a sprinter and he'll probably go for the Greenland Stakes at the Curragh next,' said the Currabeg trainer.
Con Collins, who saddled the runner-up, got in right in the opener when his home bred Softly Tread touched of odds-on shot Cashel Palace by the minimum margin under a determined drive from Pat Shanahan.
'I'm thrilled as I bred her myself. I wasn't too hard on her before today so she should improve from that,' Collins said.
Carlow trainer Pat Hughes is always a man feared by the layers and with three runners engaged in the thirty runner maiden hurdle it was only minutes before the off time before the cautious bookmakers formed a proper market.
When they did it was all one way traffic as Theseus, formerly with Sir Michael Stoute, attracted plenty of support from 8-1 in places to start the hot 11-4 favourite. The market proved accurate as the English import shrugged off easy-to-back Fnan under a confident ride from Garrett Cotter.
'It's one thing training a winner and another getting a price. The bookmakers were reluctant to price up the right-hand side of their boards which included my three but we eventually got sixes about the winner,' said Hughes.
Later in the evening, Hughes was back in the winners enclosure when Shanillo, in contrast to his earlier winner a drifter in the ring from 9-4 to 4-1, make virtually every yard a winning one in the hands of Fran Berry to capture the one-mile-and-two-furlong handicap.
'He must go right-handed and we have him handicap over hurdles,' remarked Hughes, of the former Mick Channon-trained grey.
BF
