The Broom Squire (centre)© Photo Healy Racing
Adam Short will treasure fond memories of the concluding Barrow Handicap Chase at Wexford today as he steered the Philip Rothwell trained 25/1 shot The Broom Squire to overcome form-figures of 'F00P/00PPP' in a hard-fought win, and thus ended his days as a claiming jockey.
Short made most of the running on the son of Whitmore's Conn but was made work hard in the closing stages as both Roachdale House and Captain Cobajay challenged in the home straight.
At the line The Broom Squire held Captain Cobajay to win by half a length. The win brought up the magic number of 60 wins for Short who punched the air after the line.
The Broom Squire, for his part, was showing dramatic improvement on his previous form and following the race trainer Rothwell reported "I'm thrilled. It's great to get our first winner back but I didn't think it was going to be him. His jumping had not been good. He was in front at Clonmel when he made a bad mistake on his penultimate start.
“He had been placed in a couple of hurdles and I always thought he might win a chase. I'm delighted that he did and it was a bad race. I think he will be better on better ground.
"There is a two-mile low grade handicap chase at Tramore that we might look at for him now. He will stay in that grade.
"It's great for Adam as it's his last winner as a claimer. His owners Eric Newnham and Carol Hogan are great supporters and they also have Wolfofallstreets and a nice young new horse. Hopefully we'll have more luck with them.
"We've had a few placed horses in the last three weeks and everything has been running well. Last season was very good. I let out all my horses for two months and everything has been taking a run. They'll improve and hopefully we'll have a few more winners in the next few weeks."
Quotes from Donal Murphy
