Kevin Brouder and Athea-based Eoin McCarthy won the second division of the two-mile three-furlong handicap hurdle at Limerick on Monday with the well-supported Rathnaleen Tou. The seven-year-old was having his first start for the trainer and ran out a comfortable winner. McCarthy said of the 3/1 favourite, “She’s a lovely straight forward mare. She had done some lovely bits of work with horses that we like so we thought off a mark of 80 she was well-in. Kevin is riding really well and he rides work for me twice a week. He’s a really good rider.”
Jack Kennedy and Ted Walsh were among the winners at Kilbeggan on Thursday where the Charles Wentworth-owned Picturs Of Home won the three-mile handicap hurdle. The 11/4 favourite was left in the lead when Ellipsism fell at the final flight and he battled well under Kennedy to hold off the late run of the Adrian Murray-trained Napoleon Blue by half a length.
Patrick Mullins gave Tralee schoolboy Adam Roche a special mention as he took a giant step towards retaining his champion amateur riders’ title with a late double at Kilbeggan. Mullins opened up a two-winner advantage in the title race with success, shared with his father Willie, in both bumpers on the card. The Closutton pair won the mares’ race with the Blue Blood Racing Club-owned 11/10 favourite Never Feel Blue after which the winning jockey said, “I have got to mention Adam Roche who is eight-years-old as he named the winner. She's a very good mare and she has an excellent pedigree. We had two of her sisters and they were both good bumper mares. She looks quite Myska and her brother Bob Olinger and she is very exciting as well.” The father and son team doubled up when the F&G Partnership-owned 7/4 favourite Kottayam scored a runaway success in the day’s finale. He came home 19 lengths clear of the Gavin Cromwell-trained Midnight It Is.
