RACING:EDWARD O'GRADY received a late Christmas surprise when Sailors Warn exceeded expectations by a considerable margin to secure a Grade Two success at Leopardstown yesterday.
Faced with the evidence of Sailors Warn’s previous start at Fairyhouse, O’Grady’s hopes for a place in the first four in the Bord na Mona Fire Magic Juvenile Hurdle looked no more than reasonable.
The diminutive gelding had to turn form around with three horses that finished in front of him at Fairyhouse including the well-backed 6 to 4 favourite Toner D’Oudairies.
However, the market leader was struggling before the turn-in and it was left to Andrew McNamara to power Sailors Warn past Fearless Falcon before the last to go away and win by three and a half lengths.
“Maybe the others haven’t run up to form, but I’m delighted with that. Coming here, if we’d made the first four, I’d have been delighted,” O’Grady admitted.
The Co Tipperary trainer added: “I was disappointed at Fairyhouse. He didn’t jump well and there wasn’t much pace and he never looked happy.
“Maybe the better pace here, and the nicer ground helped, I don’t know. I thought before today he might be a Fred Winter horse – he might still be!”
Bookmaker reaction, though, was to put Sailors Warn in as a 25 to 1 shot for the Triumph Hurdle, a race O’Grady won 26 years ago with Northern Game.
Cheltenham is also in O’Grady’s plans for Shot From The Hip who made much of the running in the two and a quarter mile Bord na Mona Clean Air Maiden Hurdle to beat Endless Intrigue.
“Pleased and relieved,” was the trainer’s post-race reaction. “Andrew (McNamara) said making it didn’t really suit him but the way the race was run it was the right thing to do.
“I hope he’s good enough for Cheltenham but I don’t know for what race. He will have one more run and then we’ll see.”
McNamara’s brother, Robbie, was on Endless Intrigue but earlier he had added to Wednesday’s Paddy Power Chase triumph when partnering another Dermot Weld-trained winner in the jumping newcomer Hidden Universe.
Last season’s Punchestown Champion Bumper winner made all the running to win by four lengths and earn 12 to 1 quotes for Cheltenham’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle despite jumping noticeably to his right.
“He jumped big and safe, and a bit right, but with a better pace and a lead he would have jumped better,” said Weld.
“Robbie did the right thing going on when no one else wanted to. He is potentially a horse with a big future.
“We will give him a run in a winners of one race in February and then see. He’s a very big horse, nearly 17hh, but very athletic and a very good one,” he added.
McNamara left it to the concluding Irish Foal Levy bumper to equal his brother for the day as he pounced late on Gordon Elliott’s newcomer Bold Optimist to snatch the race from Felix Yonger.
“He’s a proper horse. We’ve been working him over a mile and a quarter and he’s never come off the bridle. So he ran a bit green there when he did come off it,” Elliott said. “He’s still a baby so we’ll have to see what we do next,” added the in-form Elliott.
Some bookmakers, though, have installed Bold Optimist as the new 10 to 1 favourite for the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham.
Co Wexford trainer Martina Anne Doran enjoyed a 20 to 1 victory in the handicap hurdle as her brother, MJ, guided Ned Of The Hill to a decisive move up the inside of Concrete And Clay on the run in.
Askthemaster was a convincing winner of the Bord na Mona Handicap Chase under Philip Enright in a race that was mostly unseen from the stands due to fog.
Winning trainer Robert Tyner – away at a point-to-point meeting – was represented by his wife, Mary, who said plans were now fluid for the 10-year-old.
