AMONG the standout moments of the 25th instalment of same at Greenmount Park in Patrickswell was a first ever Christmas Racing Festival winner for trainer William O’Doherty, Ballingarry` on Sunday.
He scored in a photo-finish with Dalmatic (15/2 from 18s early), under a fine ride for Newcastle West’s Gary Noonan, in a €10,000 Handicap Hurdle sponsored by Garryspillane hurling legend Dave Ryan (D Pack Packaging, Knocklong).
“The last day I rode him in Cork it was a great run, he flew home. I thought today with the more testing ground and the blinkers, he’d nearly win,” Noonan reflected. “It’s great as it is a local syndicate.”
The winner is owned by the jovial Neville’s Cross Syndicate of Kilfinny, headed up by Fiona Loftus.
On the same card, there was a lovely win for Ballingarry handler Charles Byrnes and jockey Anthony Bustin of Newcastle West with the well-supported Rojuco Mac – owned in part by Eric Walsh, Ballyagran – in the concluding Prestige Tarmacadam (Markham family, Rathkeale) INH Flat Race of €10,000.