Any Day Now and Sean O'Keeffe © Photo Healy Racing
Any Day Now sprang a 20/1 shock when claiming the Jack & Patricia Lee Murphy Memorial Handicap Hurdle at Sligo for Eddie Cawley.
Sean O'Keeffe was to the fore on the Scorpion gelding throughout in the two-and-a-half mile contest and kept his mount wide in search of better ground.
The eight-year-old had a clear lead after the third last flight and kept on well when asked for an effort on the run-in to hold the challenge of Breagagh by a length-and-a-half.
Any Day Now was showing significant improvement having been well beaten in four starts this season.
O'Keeffe said: "It was great. When he missed one, he was going sweet in between the hurdles and was soon back on the bridle, and he was enjoying it that he was going that bit better than the rest of them. He picked up off the turn when I asked him and jumped the last well.
"I'm delighted for Eddie. He has plenty of horses and puts a lot into the game. He's from Enniscrone so this is a local winner for him.”
Cawley added: "He had run well here a year ago but had never repeated that. I put blinkers on him the last day at Galway and Jordan Gainford rode him. He said to drop him back to two and a half miles on soft ground and that he'd ride him again.
“Jordan's in Cheltenham today so he'll be kicking himself to have missed a winner but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
“I told Sean to blast him out and see can he stay there. Very few stay there in Sligo because it's such a tough track but we knew he'd get home over this trip."
(Quotes by Mark Nunan)
