Dimple and Liam Quinlan© Photo Healy Racing
Andy Slattery took a trip down memory lane following the win of his Dimple in the Follow thetote.com Twitter Hunters Chase at Tramore today, bridging a gap of 20 years to the day since the trainer's first winner.
Dimple had failed to win in eight starts in Britain before joining Slattery, for whom he was unbeaten in three point to point runs before pulling up at Limerick on his latest start in December. Today, 17 year old jockey Liam Quinlan steered the gelding to his own second career winner.
Slattery, who sent Champion Hurdler Faugheen on his career with a winning point to point debut, today revealed "I actually trained my first winner in this race back in 1997 with a horse called Shaws Cross and the jockey who rode him was Paul Moloney, and it was also his first ever winner over fences.”
He added “Dimple had a wind operation after Limerick, was off for six weeks and is only back riding out five weeks. He just choked on the heavy ground at Limerick and we decided to get his wind done after that.
"That's Liam's (Quinlan) second winner on the track and he is a good young lad. He’s confident and could go out riding in the Champion Hurdle and wouldn't care!
"He is owned by an Englishman, Dave Armstrong, who has horses with Chris Grant and Malcolm Jefferson,
“I don't know what the plans are with him now but his owner might want to take him back now and race in England now for the summer. We've four won with him now, so if he wants to take him back now we have our job done."
By Tom Weekes, quotes from Donal Murphy
