By Dan Walsh at Bettyville Park
Bridgetown trainer Seamus Neville flew the flag for the local punters at Wexford this afternoon when he saddled Brideswell Lad (11/4 fav) to follow up on his Limerick success in July to win the Wexford Racecourse Racing Club Handicap Chase under Caim jockey JJ Slevin.
Speaking afterwards Neville said; “He won pretty handy in Limerick. We were a little bit concerned about the ground today but he handled it okay. He would prefer quicker ground. I doubt if he’ll reach the heights of his half-brother Cloth Cap but with a bit of luck he might. I’ll look at Listowel for him now but it will depend on the ground.”
It was a memorable day for Anthony Bustin who rode his first winner on the track aboard Killoughteen (3/1) in the mare’s maiden hurdle. His two small sons, Harvey and Logan, dressed up in the identical silks to support their Dad and this was a family delighted in Wexford today.
“I rode one winner in a point-to-point in 2013 and then gave it up for six or seven years. I’m back at it now and myself, my brother-in-law and my wife own her. I said I wouldn’t ride again until I had my own horse because there’s no pressure and I can do whatever I want,” said Bustin afterwards.
Leading Waterford trainer Henry de Bromhead got the day off to the perfect start with Magical Zoe (2/1 fav) getting home a length and a half to the good in the maiden hurdle under Conor Brassil.
One of the Three Tenors, Dr Ronan Tynan missed out on seeing his charge Kellies Dream (6/1) win the handicap hurdle for Andrew Slattery and claiming rider Cian Quirke. Tynan, who is closely associated on the racing scene with his singing colleague Anthony Kearns is a regular visitor to Wexford, but not present on this winning occasion.
Donagh Meyler won the handicap hurdle on Sean Says (10/1) for owner and trainer Rodger Sweeney from Castlelyons in Cork and the novice chase only attracted four runners with victory going to the Gordon Elliott trained Tullybeg (4/1) ridden by Davy Russell.
The final race of an interesting afternoon was the handicap chase with success for Ardaghs Choice (9/1) trained by Eamon ‘Dusty’ Sheehy at Graiguenamanagh and jockey Kevin Sexton who had seven lengths to spare over Philip Rothwell’s Walking The Walk.
The going was ‘good to yielding’ with a decent sized Saturday attendance and a small scattering of rain failed to dampen the enthusiasm.
The Tote aggregate was €69,747.96 compared with €46,843.94 last year.
Just two meetings left on the 2022 calendar for Wexford races and the dates to remember are the October Bank Holiday, Sunday and Monday, October 30th and 31st.
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