Artic Pearl leads on the run-in© Photo Healy Racing
The Martin Brassil trained Artic Pearl gained a measure of compensation following an unfortunate mishap at Fairyhouse 11 days ago when winning the Coral.ie Blogs By Tom Scudamore Handicap Hurdle at Punchestown today, under Roger Loughran.
The six year old son of Shirocco was gambled (from 6/1 in the morning and 3/1 on track) when the 9/4 favourite at Fairyhouse recently, but gave his supporters a real head-in-hands moment approaching the final flight, as a slipped saddle caused jockey Loughran to exit the saddle dramatically, having taken a narrow lead.
Today with the cat out of the bag and under tighter girths and a 3lbs weight hike from the handicapper, the 5/2 favourite went clear of his rivals on the run-in to score a three lengths win over Nobody Home
Afterwards Grand National winning trainer Brassil stated “he was a bit unlucky the last day and with the 3lb rise we thought he might still be able to win. The only worry I had was it was coming a bit soon after Fairyhouse but I ran him because there wasn't anything for him for the next three or four weeks.
"He had a fracture last year and it was very hard to keep him sound and he's a real handicapper sort of horse as he just does enough. He gets himself there and then you have to ask him to do a bit more."
Quotes from Alan Magee
