O’Connor has success in store for McManus

IT IS almost seven years since the most famous colours in jump racing, the green and gold hoops of JP McManus, were last carried to victory in a four-year-old maiden point-topoint.

However, the drought could be set to end. A total of nine four-year-o ld s ow ne d by Mc Ma nu s have re ceiv ed hunter certificates for the start of the new four-year-old maiden season which begins next month

The nine individuals were bought from store sales at Goffs and Tattersalls last year for an average price of just under €80,000, and eac h ha s a pedigree to match its price tag.

The group includes a son of the five-time winner and blacktype placed Avondhu Lady, as well as a Milan gelding out of a sister to the 2013 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Bobs Worth.

McManus’s silks are best as soc ia te d in the re cen t pointing era with the recordbreaking hunter chaser On The Fringe, and Thecraicisninety, who was his last four-year-old maiden winner, at Dromahane in March 2015.

Derek O’Connor was in the saddle on that occasion and it is the 11-time champion rider who sent out his first winner as a handler at Necarne in the au tu mn, wh o ha s the McManus-owned youngsters under his care.

Normal service is resumed for Doyle

Donnchadh Doyle had not saddled a single runner since sending out Speed Davis for an 11-length victory in a fouryear-old geldings’ maiden at Boulta on the final day of the autumn term, but he picked up where he left off at Ballycrystal on Sunday.

Great Pepper became his tenth winner of the campaign with a four-length success in the confined maiden to bring his strike-rate for the season to above 40 per cent and with 17 of his 24 runners finishing either first or second.

Willie Murphy is another handler enjoying a purple patch With the exception of Joe Hannigan, who failed to finish in the Ballycr ystal opener, each of Murphy’s last 14 po in ti ng ru nne rs ha s finished in the first four, a sequence that stretches to the start of December

This month, three maiden winners have emerged from his Ba lly cur ra gh bas e, an operation which has been bolstered by the addition of the 2018 Irish St Leger winner Flag Of Honour He has joined the stallion ranks at Ballycurragh Stud for the 2023 season.

Christie tightens grip on Cheltenham betting

Last season’s champion hunter chaser Billaway made his return to action on Sunday with Willie Mullins choosing the same Thurles race as last year as the starting point for the Turner family-owned bay. And it was a similar story for the 11-year-old who is yet to make a winning seasonal return.

Last year he trailed home 12 lengths behind Winged Leader and it was another David Christie runner, Ferns Lock, who relegated him to second this time by 20 lengths

The result caused last year’s Festival Hunter Chase winner to ease to a top price of 9-1 to retain his crown in March.

It means Christie is responsible for the top three in the betting for the leading hunter chase of the year title, in Vaucelet, Winged Leader and Ferns Lock

Although Christie has said he intends to keep the six-year-old Ferns Lock on home soil to contest the Tetretema Cup at Gowran Park rather than taking a trip to Cheltenham, that stranglehold on festival betting is a notable show of strength by the Fermanagh handler

Liam Burke’s Grange Island is the only non-Christietrained hunter chase winner this season as he narrowly beat the Derrylin stable’s representative Global Assembly in the rearranged maiden hunter chase at Clonmel last week.

The Irish team of hunters has a strong look to it this season and Billaway will attempt to enhance his credentials at Naas next month by attempting to win his target there for a fourth year in succession en route to Cheltenham