Going - Good to Yielding, Yielding in places. Partly Cloudy
Jackpot Pool - 8,562.70 Dividend - 922.20 Winning Units - 6.5. Placepot Pool - 100,757.81 Dividend - 124.00 Winning Units - 568.52. Days Aggregate - 673,169.40 Last Year 551,143.77
Gilligan Harsh on his rivals in day two opener
Backtonormal makes successful transition to Cromwell
Tom Furlong (part owner) put in my first gallop and he’s a great fella. He runs in Darren Cahill’s colours who is also a great supporter of the yard as well. It’s a great pot to win. It’s his first run for me - Mags had him and he was banging on the door. It was an obvious target and we just had enough time to transition from Mags’ to here. His form was good and I thought he’d run well. He stayed well and it looks like he’ll make a nice chaser.
Gorgeous Tom relishes better ground to finish strongly
We’ve always liked him. He probably just struggled on that winter ground early on and we gave him a break after Christmas. He came back for the maiden hurdle and did it well. We hoped on better ground and stepping him up in trip would suit him.
Dancing City shows off his festival quickstep again
It just shows how tough he is that he’s been to every racing Festival, it takes a lot of doing. It all goes well for the future going over fences. He did quite well coming back from Aintree. We haven’t done that before — Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown. It looks achievable, so we might do more of it in the future!. He didn’t show how good he was until we went out in trip. High Class Hero ran very well and looked for a minute that he might upset Paul.
Fastorslow grabs more Punchestown Gold Cup glory
To win it last year was a bit of a shock, but to win it two years in a row is something that can probably never be repeated again. We have to enjoy every second. In a lifetime you could have a hundred horses and never have a horse like him. Martin is an extraordinary man to care for a horse and had him spot on today. He’s turned up in just as good a shape (as last year) and possibly even better. JJ said he was running away with him for the first mile. He’s the best horse that I’ve ever had.
Lets Go Champ brings up a double for de Bromhead
It’s brilliant for Roger (Brookhouse, owner). He’s a great supporter of ours and a great supporter of Punchestown. He lost a very good friend, Tom, only recently who came every year with him and he wants to dedicate that to him. He ran very well here last year and was a little bit unlucky. He probably struggled a bit on the ground in Limerick (last time) but he was very good today. He could be a Galway Plate horse but we’ll see what the handicapper does and what everybody wants to do. We’ll enjoy today, today is a big day.
Familiar Dreams gives McCann a first Graded success
Aine gets on great with her. She did a piece of work in the Curragh last Tuesday on the heavy sand and blew us away. I was very concerned all day about the ground. Jamie Codd rode her twice last year and he more or less said go and run her, she’s the best horse in the race. She came across the track and I don’t know why. Maybe she wanted to show herself off as she’s going into the Sales ring tomorrow evening!. It’s been a dream. I sourced her myself and have got her this far. It would be a fairytale if we could get to keep her in the yard. She’s the first horse into the ring tomorrow and we have to talk about what the reserve is now. I own 20 per cent of her.