Galway Festival:Pat Flynn gained his first success in the Arthur Guinness Galway Hurdle thanks to a vintage performance from Bahrain Storm. Despite being largely regarded as a Flat trainer, Flynn has gained plenty of kudos in the National Hunt game, notably with Cheltenham Festival winners French Ballerina and Montelado.
This success, however, must surely take high rank on the trainer’s CV.
Despite having scored decisively on his latest outing at Cork, Bahrain Storm was sent off at 20-1 for this fiercely competitive handicap — but young jockey Stephen Gray always appeared full of confidence.
Gray asked his mount to go and win his race after jumping the second-last and the contest was as good as over approaching the final obstacle.
The six-year-old safely negotiated the final flight and continued to extend his advantage, passing the post six lengths ahead of favourite Deutschland.
County Waterford-based Flynn said: “This is a fantastic day for a fantastic horse — it’s just brilliant.
“After he won his last race at Cork, Davy (Russell) came up to me and just said ‘sheer class’ — and that’s what he is.
“The horse is in super form. I told Stephen to race him on the inside and everything worked out well.
“We gave him a canter this morning at 6am as he’s a bit stuffy.
“We checked his heart and he obviously has a good recovery rate because he was absolutely fine and squealing before the race.
“Stephen is a good, young lad and he rides out for me the odd morning.
“I’ll have to try and win the Galway Plate now.”
Gray added: “I can’t believe it. It was a bit rough down on the rail but once we got plenty of daylight he jumped and travelled great.
“I gave him a little bit of a squeeze and he got to the front so I just decided to carry on.”
Willie Mullins’s Deutschland was sent off the heavily-backed 15-8 favourite but his supporters knew their fate from a long way out, with Ruby Walsh hard at work from the top of the hill.
Walsh said: “He’s just a chaser running over hurdles and lost half a length at every hurdle — that’s eight lengths.
“He’s a chaser and that’s why he’s 25lb lower over hurdles.”
Luke McNiff had to be taken to Galway Hospital with suspected back injuries after taking a crashing fall from Fingers in the early stages of the race.