Going - Good. Overcast
Sole Pretender made to work before landing the odds
I'm delighted with him. We got a bit of a shock at the bottom of the straight but he still went and did his job,. John Ryan's horse (Ferdia) isn't a bad horse. Our lad will come on from that again and we'll see where we go now. He might go for the Grimes Hurdle or maybe to Galway for the novice chase on the Thursday. It wasn't as easy as you'd expect but he still got it done. He's still learning over fences and it was grand to have a horse rattle down over them with him there as the fences are a bit bigger here than in Ballinrobe. He won his race snugly in the end. You'd be thinking that a race is average but when you go and try to win them they are not that average. We're happy out with him.
Fowler thrilled as Politesse lands Connacht National
I never had so much pleasure in seeing a horse back to winning ways. She has her problems and took a while to come back after unseating at Cork. We've just been trying to build her confidence to get her back here. Everything was perfect, she loves that good ground and loves to have them chasing her. Conor was really good on her today, he always is to be fair. That was her back at her best and I'm very proud of her today. She's got the class but it's taken a long time to get here. Nothing went her way in Killarney (behind Easy Game) in what was essentially a Grade 1 race. Hopefully that will fill her with confidence. I don't know what we'll do next but she'll definitely keep running.
Smooth sailing for O'Hanlon on Weddell Sea
Gordon's horse (Wrecking Ball Paul, prominent when his saddle slipped early and quickly pulled up) running off the track made life a bit easier. He wouldn't be a natural front-runner though and he was having a look around in front. He jumped nicely and put in a nice enough show so we'll head on to Galway, probably for the winners' four-year-old race. The timeline for that race is lovely. I'd say there is probably a bit of improvement in him as he had a bit of time off and is having a good blow there.
First jumps winner for Annalise Cullen
I'm delighted. He's not winning out of turn as he was running good races in defeat last year and he ran a lovely race the last day with Denis O'Regan. I'm delighted for Annalise to get her first winner over hurdles and hopefully the stewards enquiry goes well.
Presenting Lad strikes in action-packed contest
I thought he'd win the last day (third at Wexford) but they walked around and he got very free. Philip Enright said then to put a line through it, he'd win the next day, and he was right. He probably should have won for the lads I bought him off, I'd be friendly with them. He had a race won here last year and went upside down at the last. He'll come back for that same race this year, touch wood. He's in good order. The false start didn't help him today as he can get a bit revved up but it worked out grand.
Torrens doubles up on Ambitious Fellow
He's a nice horse. His run in Punchestown was very good and we ran him back pretty quick in Wexford because these two races were slotting in. We'll keep him ticking over for Galway now and go for a nice handicap there, he has plenty of experience now. That'll be our main target with him. The horses are flying, we had a great season last year and it's continuing on this year so it's brilliant. He's a nice horse to look forward to. We can step him up in trip even more, when they got racing there after the fourth last we were caught for toe but he did it well at the death. The ground was probably as quick as he'd want it today but we had to run him to get the experience into him. We're looking forward to Galway now.
O'Hanlon completes double on Lady Iseult
A Dream To Share scores under a confident Gleeson