No Beating Byrnes and McNamara Alfa Beat completed a remarkable hat-trick of wins for new trainer Charles Byrnes in the October 10th Munster National (QR) Handicap Hurdle when readily justifying strong 11/10 favouritism under a typically cool ride from Robbie McNamara. McNamara moved the son of Environment Friend to lead two out, before running out the easy four and a half lengths winner over Carutomark. Afterwards Byrnes, in a rush to see Rolling Steel's run at Leopardstown, briefly mentioned "Alfa Beat will run next in the three miles handicap hurdle at Galway on Wednesday." The horse Alfa Beat's own story is a notable one and worthy of a mention! A good winner on his only point to point start in '08, the gelding subsequently landed a gamble to win a handicap hurdle at Ballinrobe the following year, before losing all form, each run when trained by Limerick based Carl Dore. The gelding's last run for Dore, a near enough neighbour of future trainer Byrnes, was when beaten 62l in a Killarney handicap chase on May 9. However, just five weeks late, Alfa Beat, now running for Byrnes, landed another gamble, his career second, when taking a Roscommon handicap chase before following up under a 14lbs penalty at Wexford subsequently and Limerick today!
