O'Toole and Jordan Gainford are clear© Photo Healy Racing
O'Toole put himself front-and-centre in the shop window with a taking win in the concluding Ian Smith Memorial (Pro-Am) Bumper at Fairyhouse today, scoring for owner/trainer Stuart Crawford and substitute jockey Jordan Gainford.
Crawford's brother Ben Crawford was pencilled in for the ride on the five year old son of Mahler but failed to complete a Covid check-in procedure, with Gainford instead taking the ride.
In the race O'Toole (25/1) showed a good turn of foot when bounding clear at the furlong pole, eventually hitting the line well and beating 250/1 runner-up Little Big Rocky by 15 lengths.
Larne based Crawford later stated “we thought he was a nice horse and should have been going point-to-pointing, that was the plan.
“He's a very good jumper but he was ready to run and we had to get him out somewhere.
“My brother (Ben) has done all the work on him and I'm just sorry he wasn't on him today. He was confident he'd go well.
“He's a lovely horse and he's for sale.”
He added “Jordan gave him a good ride and did everything I asked - hopefully I can get him again, if he keeps getting winners he'll be hard to get.”
Jockey Gainford was riding his third winner from just seven rides since turning professional last week.
Quotes from Gary Carson
