King's War and Martin Mooney© Photo Healy Racing
Husband and wife, jockey/trainer Martin and Ann Mooney rolled back the years to win the Hook Head Handicap Chase at Wexford today with King's War
Jockey Martin Mooney bagged a Grade 1 hurdle win on the Sabrina Harty trained Won In The Dark at Leopardstown in 2007 and while his time in the past six seasons has been limited to between eight and 34 rides, today he was riding his first winner since steering his father Paddy Mooney's Wooly Tom to win at Fairyhouse in January 2014.
Winning trainer Ann Mooney, wife of the successful jockey, later said "I'm delighted with him, he has just been wrong for a good while but everything clicked today. I thought he might need to run today but he has done it well.
"To be fair we thought he'd need this run very badly because he has been off the track for sometime. We'll wait until tomorrow, see how he comes out of this race and plan it from there. Hopefully the handicapper isn't too hard on us."
She added “Paddy (Mooney, father-in-law) has been a great help coming down to us since he gave his license in and everything has just gone well.
It's my first winner over jumps, I had one winner on the Flat last year, Full Shilling, and she is retired now.
It's all about family with us and Paddy has been a massive help in the yard and is a great asset to have around the place with all the experience he has got and then Martin rides them. It's brilliant and we are delighted.”
Quotes from Donal Murphy
