Westerner Point and Phillip Enright winning the Tim Duggan Memorial Handicap Chase© Photo Healy Racing
Westerner Point landed the featured Tim Duggan Memorial Handicap Chase for the second time at Limerick this afternoon.
The Eoghan O’Grady-trained gelding won this €50,000 Grade B event in 2016, and regular partner Phillip Enright was again in the saddle.
The 14/1 chance likes to be up with the pace and was again prominent throughout in this extended 2m3f contest.
The nine-year-old gelding, who was recording his tenth career win, made good headway on the far side to lead at the final fence and kept on well on the run-in to beat Kylecrue by two and a half lengths. Burgas kept on one paced a length and a half further back in third, while another Gigginstown-owned gelding Burren Life was close up when falling at the penultimate fence.
O’Grady said, “I thought we were in trouble turning in and he got caught on the rail but Phillip got him out and he stayed great to the line. He jumped great and Phillip knows him well and gave him a super ride.
“He was entered in the Paddy Power but needs soft ground so we decided to come here. He was in savage form at home. We were hoping to get a run into him but the ground was so quick that we didn’t. He seemed to do well fresh today.
“He jumped very well in (the Becher Chase) Liverpool last year and we might go back there for the Topham. He didn’t travel over there too well in the horsebox and his chance was probably gone before he lined up. He didn’t eat or drink over there. We’ll see what the ground is like but we might give that a go.”
