Chris Hayes and Dermot Weld © Photo Healy Racing
Dermot Weld and Chris Hayes secured a quick double at Galway this evening when Livio Milo gained a deserved success in the Caulfield Industrial Maiden.
Having landed the feature event 35 minutes earlier, with Coeur D'or the pair were right back into the winners' enclosure with the Moyglare-owned gelding.
Hayes tracked the front-running Sectarius in the seven-furlong contest and his mount had to work hard to wear down the 33/1 shot inside the final furlong.
The Lope De Vega gelding then held the late run of Nelda to secure a neck victory.
The 5/2 winner wasn't winning out of turn having been runner-up on his last three outings.
"He deserves it, he's had three seconds on his last three runs and the plan worked out perfectly. He is probably better over a mile than seven furlongs and that's why the plan was to push on and get first run early in the straight," said Weld.
"That's what we did, he battled hard and got a good ride. He did what I thought he'd do.
"I love horses getting into a rhythm coming down the hill because so many get unbalanced. When they get balanced, they get a rhythm which gets them up the hill.
"That's his level and he's tough and the winning of the race today was tactics although I shouldn't be saying all this!"
He added:- "I had one runner yesterday which ran a very good race and finished second and the two-year-old (Tannola) is our only runner today which didn't win but did everything right but was beaten by a very good filly - please god she will do very well in the future."
Hayes told RTE:- “He's a tough little horse and stuck at it well. He stays a little bit further so we kicked forward and tried to ride it simple.
“He was probably idling a little bit late on. It's good to get it done and it's nice as it's a few weeks since I had a winner in these colours.
“I got off him in Naas, and (Moyglare adviser) Fiona (Craig) was there, and I just said I thought Galway would suit him. He's a handy horse but he tries hard.”
