Precocious talent Danny Gilligan crowned a dream weekend for his family and added to his own growing lustre as he navigated Coko Beach (20/1) to victory in the €100,000 Grade 3 Bar One Racing Troytown Chase on day two of the inaugural Navan Racing Festival.
The success was the high point of another spectacular day for trainer Gordon Elliott, who followed up yesterday’s treble at Navan with a four-timer, including the other main contest of the day, the Grade 3 John Lynch Carpets Monksfield Novice Hurdle in which Croke Park (4/6f) led home a Cullentra House 1-2-3-4.
Jack Kennedy was on board Croke Park and he registered a treble on the other Elliott winners, also doing the steering on facile Bar One Racing ‘Price Boosts’ 3-Y-O Hurdle victor Kala Conti (2/13f) and American Mike (9/4), who put a disappointing season over hurdles behind him with a very eye-catching pillar-to-post victory over the heavily touted favourite Fact To File in the Race And Stay Irish EBF Beginners’ Chase.
It was a day to remember too for local jockey Caragh Monaghan, an All-Ireland ladies football winner with Meath who gave St Denis’s Well a wonderful ride to score at 40/1 in the Gaeil Colmcille GAA Kells Handicap Hurdle for trainer Ian Donoghue and the Declans Bar Syndicate, while Robcour’s unleashing of weapon after weapon continued with a double in the maiden hurdles, the Henry de Bromhead-trained Look To The West (9/4jf) digging deep for Rachael Blackmore to add to the opening success of Kala Conti.
Gilligan has enjoyed a tremendous season since linking up with Elliott, although the 17-year-old has had a couple of bad injuries too. He came back from one of those to win the Galway Plate at his local track and today, was recording a 25th winner of the season.
Yesterday , he was looking on from Navan as older brother Jack rode Buddy One, trained by their father Paul, to score at Cheltenham.
“Jack and Dad had a big day yesterday and not to be bad, I was a small bit jealous!” said a smiling Gilligan. “But that there today made up for it. I was delighted for them but I’ve probably no chance of getting up on the horse now! It was great. Every winner is needed at home and I was delighted for them.
“Everyone in the weigh room wants to have a go on this lad,” he said of galloping grey, Coko Beach. “He jumps, he travels. I thought he was way overpriced. I thought he’d a massive chance. I rode him in Limerick (when he finished third in the Munster National) and he ran a stormer. He had a blow and I knew he’d come on from it. I just got into such a good rhythm with him. He jumped from fence to fence and he just gallops and gallops.”
It was a sixth Troytown Chase for Elliott and he was full of praise for Gilligan. The trainer revealed that Kennedy had been considering plumping for Coko Beach rather than Run Wild Fred but that with a weight of 11st 10lb, the horse was always slated for a claim.
And it probably proved significant, as the former Thyestes Chase winner held off the late challenge of the well-backed Limerick Lace, himself given a lovely ride by another 5lb conditional, Aidan Kelly, and representing trainer Gavin Cromwell, a close friend of Elliott’s who had saddled his second winner in 24 hours at Cheltenham only 15 minutes earlier with the Seán Flanagan-ridden Malina Girl. The margin at the end was two and a quarter lengths.
“He’s a great little rider, he’s a valuable five pound,” said Elliott of Gilligan. “Jack was actually thinking of riding this fella as well but I said no, I was definitely claiming off him so he was out of bounds straight away!
“Coko Beach is a great horse. He’s a bit of a boyo at home. He’s just a character. He’d a good run in Limerick the last day. Danny gave him a great ride.”
Croke Park was made to dig deep by the more experienced Mel Monroe, given a peach of a ride by Sam Ewing, before justifying his odds but showed a very willing attitude, with Kennedy signalling that two and a half miles might already not be far enough for the Walk In The Park five-year-old, who like the day’s big winner, is owned by the re-emerging force that is Gigginstown House Stud.
“He’s a lovely, big, galloping horse. He probably wants three miles. He doesn’t really do anything in a hurry but he was good there. He is very straightforward so I was happy with him there but you could see him go up in trip I’d say,” Kennedy offered.
Few smiles were broader on the day than Monaghan’s however, the talented sportswoman from nearby Kentstown who works for the aforementioned Cromwell and spent the past two days with his horses at Cheltenham before flying home last night to take the ride on St Denis’s Well, registering that landmark maiden winner with a very cool ride as she held onto her partner until after the last.
“That was amazing,” enthused Monaghan, who goes into the Donoghue yard in the afternoons. “I couldn’t get over how well he travelled. There was not much of a gallop on so I sat where I was happy. They wanted me a little further back but he was happy enough where he was so I left him where he was.
“In fairness to him, he was determined, put his head down and he galloped away real easy. He’ll definitely get further.”
Dorking Cock was very tough over the 2m6f trip of the Bar One Racing Sign Up Offer Handicap Hurdle that many of the 11 runners found a slog, put in the firing line the whole way by JJ Slevin. Showing impressive resolution, he bravely held off Ms Agartha Yeats by a half-length and owner/trainer Stuart Crawford revealed that a tilt at the Welsh National could be on the agenda.
Meanwhile, Cromwell had a good bumper winner yesterday in Springt De La Mare and after going close in the Troytown, he did complete a second consecutive Navan/Cheltenham double with another exciting youngster. Only By Night was a far more decisive winner of the Coolmore NH Sires EBF INH Flat Race for mares than the two-and-a-quarter-length margin over the Crawford-trained Mongibello suggests, having been given an absolutely ultra-confident ride from the front by Derek O’Connor.
