Cluan Dara © Photo Healy Racing
Danny Mullins was like a cyclist on the perimeter of a velodrome so wide did he come from the third-last to win the Jim Ryan Racecourse Services Handicap Chase on Cluan Dara (11/2).
The ten-year-old, available at 33s and 40s until money started to come for him in the late afternoon, had raced behind the leaders early on but made steady headway from the end of the back straight and was in front two out. From there he stayed on well to beat stablemate Father Jed by a length and a half with Mullins just having to keep his idling partner up to his work in the final hundred yards.
Mullins, who walked the track with an improvised going stick, said: "You have to do everything you can to get an advantage - maybe the horse just needs more room!"
John Ryan: "Danny is brilliant, it was an extraordinary ride and he was brilliant last night too (on Ryan's winner Chief Seattle at Ballinrobe). He (Cluan Dara) ran in a charity race at the Curragh on Sunday but didn't have a hard race.
On his one-two he added: "They are savage horses and I thought the two would be there or thereabouts but I didn't think they'd be first and second. I thought that was a more competitive race but it wasn't.
"They are what they are at this stage of their careers and will win again at a mark."
Quotes from Tom Weekes
