Pinar Del Rio and Ronan Whelan win the Ryans Cleaning Handicap for owner and mother Kathleen Healy Racing © Photo Healy Racing
Pinar Del Rio who gave fledgling trainer Joe Conlon his first winner when successful at the Curragh earlier this month, doubled up when making all to land the Ryans Cleaning Handicap at Limerick.
A maiden winner at the Curragh for Paddy Twomey back in 2021, the gelding had rather lost his way somewhat in recent times but showed a return to form when gaining a second career victory back at the Kildare venue last time.
Sent off 9/4f on the back of that success, the son of Havana Gold bounced out smartly under jockey Ronan Whelan, making every post a winning one.
The winner also carried the colours of Kathleen Whelan, mother of the victorious rider. Shawaamekh stayed on strongly from out of the chasing pack to claim second, with Rathbranchchurch back in third.
Winning trainer Joe Conlon added: "He wasn't 100% last year but we got a couple of things done to him over the winter and have got him right and he is paying us back this year. It took him a while to get his confidence back but we have ironed them out now.
"We'll run him as much as we can for the next while because he wants a bit of juice in the ground. We give him a break when the really fast ground comes.
"He ran well in the Scurry last year when 7lb out of the handicap and can mix it with some of those good handicappers. We'll look at doing something like that again at some stage."
He added "I've nine or ten horses in training and am based on the Curragh."
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
