Fire Fighting and Fran Berry are well in control© Photo Healy Racing
< Fire Fighting proved much too hot for the home team when easily landing the feature race at Dundalk, the Listed Carlingford Stakes.
Mark Johnston's four-year-old was a comfortable winner at Chelmsford recently and was right at the top of his game again here, beating Hot Sauce by five lengths.
Fran Berry settled his mount in midfield in the early stages and despite appearing a little flat-footed when the tempo increased, the 8-11 market leader stayed on powerfully once finding his stride and stretched right away in the closing stages.< Lady Oak (14-1) got off the mark at the second time of asking, but only after finding The Yellow Bus a particularly tough nut to crack in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Median Auction Maiden.
The Arcano filly looked set to win comfortably when produced with a withering run on the outside but she found the more experienced The Yellow Bus in no mood to lie down and only a head separated the pair as they hit the line with the promising Even Song back in third.
The Irish Stallion Farms EBF (C & G) Median Auction Maiden kicked off proceedings and the Mick Halford-trained Rezeki (5-4 fav) had few problems in opening his account, building on a promising debut effort here three weeks ago to win by three lengths.
There would be another winner on the card for Halford as Golden Raven (5-1) overcame more than his fair share of traffic problems to land the Crowne Plaza Race & Stay Package Handicap.
The recent Navan scorer was still angling for a run as they swung for home but always appeared to be travelling well and he quickened up smartly once the gaps appeared, running down Bishan Bedi close home to score by a neck.
Oisin Orr gave Coreczka (12-1) a peach of a ride when running out a half a length victor of the Irishinjuredjockeys.com Apprentice Handicap while Honor Oak (8-1) brought up a treble on the night for jockey Shane Foley in the Crowne Plaza Leading Jockey & Trainer Championship Handicap.
