Blackmore relieved to get back to winning ways
July Her Gave Delighted Back Racing From Healy Her Groove: First A Since Return A Success Picture: The Injury Flower Blackmore In After Rachael
Rachael Blackmore admitted relief as being the overriding emotion after July Flower gave her a first winner since her recent return from injury when taking the Grade Three BeatTheBank.ie Irish EBF Mares’ Hurdle in grand style.
The mare, who was trained in France, then had one run for Henry de Bromhead before returning to her former trainer, was having her first run in her second spell at de Bromhead’s. Having been placed in the French Champion Hurdle on her last run in France, she was enjoying a drop in grade, and that class shone through as she got on top late to beat the game Kala Conti by four lengths.
“Just relief to be back in the winner’s enclosure again,” said Blackmore, when asked how that felt as she crossed the line. “This is what you’re riding for, and it’s great when you get one — they’re hard to get.”
Of July Flower, whose target is the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, she added: “She can be keen, but she settled lovely today, and we went a really good gallop, and the race panned out ideally for her. She picked up again when we turned in, and she’s a really nice mare.
“Her jumping is exceptional. It’s a big asset to her. She’s got some really good form in France, and it’s great that she could reproduce it over here. This is her first run back for Henry, and you’d imagine there will be plenty more to come from her.”
Ricky Doyle notched his second winner of the meeting when Ol Man Dingle, trained by Eoin Griffin, completed a personal hat-trick with a 20-1 success in the novice handicap hurdle.
After Sequestered, trained by his father, Paul, coasted to success in the Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Chase, winning rider Jack Gilligan said: “That’s probably the easiest winner I’ve ever ridden in my life, and I’m delighted to get that one for my dad, and for the owners. We came here hoping this lad would run a nice race, but we weren’t expecting that.”
Gavin Cromwell had another profitable Christmas, sending out five winners over the last four days, and his third at this venue came when Al Gasparo, ridden by Conor Stone-Walsh, made all the running and showed great resolve to keep all comers at bay in the Neville Hotels Premier Handicap Hurdle.
That race didn’t provide the fairytale finish for jockey Daryl Jacob but that will be of little concern to the Wexford rider, who bowed out on a high as it was just last month that he rode the 1000th winner of his career.
For the past 11 years, he has been retained by owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede and it was fitting that the final Grade One of his career, aboard Impaire Et Passe in the Guinness 00 Faugheen Novice Chase on Saturday at Limerick, was in their famous double green colours.
To bring the festival to a close, Waterford trainer Declan Queally took the Plusvital Bumper with the exciting Carrigmoornaspruce. From a top family, the four-year-old filly quickened up really smartly to collar Sortudo inside the final 50 yards.
- Not unusually, attendance figures were weakest for the final day of the meeting, but they were strong over the first three days, resulting in a very healthy accumulated figure of 62,748. St Stephen’s Day attracted 17,019 racegoers, a shade up on the same day last year, while on Friday, that increased to 17,735, which was also up on the same day in 2023. The figure dipped just a touch, to 17,156, for Saturday’s card, though that was significantly up on last year, when 15,778 were in attendance, while the final day attendance was 10,838.