CURRAGH REPORT:FRAN BERRY may have endured a difficult St Leger passage at Doncaster on Saturday but things picked up for the jockey in a big way at the Curragh yesterday with a sparkling 1,983 to 1 four-timer.
Highlight of the afternoon was Snaefell’s 8 to 1 success in the Group Three Renaissance Stakes as the Michael Halford-trained sprinter sliced through the field to run clear of Girouette and Alexander Youth.
Towards the tail of the field was the English raider Danehill Destiny but she had played a crucial role in Snaefell’s victory having cut out a ferocious early pace.
“That pace was all important,” said Halford. “He’s a horse that loves coming through and passing others and sometimes they don’t go quick enough in the early stages to allow him do that. But he’s been running well all season and he deserved that. There isn’t much left for him pattern wise.”
Berry stepped in for the Sanefell ride after both Johnny Murtagh and Pat Smullen were committed to others in the race and he continued his black type run having scored a post-Leger Group Two victory for Eddie Lynam on Duff at Doncaster on Saturday.
However, Berry looked unlucky in the Leger itself as Mourayan was a staying on fifth after enduring a less than clear passage.
“He was a bit unfortunate and was hampered a couple of times,” Mourayan’s trainer John Oxx said yesterday before indicating the colt could run in the Group Two Prix de Chaudenay at Longchamp on the Saturday of Arc weekend.
Finding gaps was not a problem for the rider yesterday though and he brought up his four-timer in the seven-furlong handicap when Pax Soprana weaved through from the rear of the field to force a dead-heat with Final Flashback in the final stride.
Pax Soprana’s trainer Eddie Harty also supplied Corcovada to land the Listed Flame Of Tara Stakes with Berry short-heading Smullen on Sense Of Purpose. “Mission accomplished,” smiled Harty. “She has won black type and is worth a few quid now. Hopefully somebody will come along and help us get through the winter!”
Berry was also successful on Noel Meade’s Silverhand who justified the handicapper’s high opinion of him by getting the better of Essex in the 14-furlong handicap. “After he won at Tramore I thought the handicapper had given him too much but he seems to be a bit better on the flat than over jumps,” Meade said.
Aidan O’Brien endured a notably meagre weekend at Group level and that continued in the Solonaway Stakes as the favourite, Poet, had no answer to the English raider Border Patrol after attempting to make all.
Kevin Manning made a bold attempt to win Saturday’s Leger on Border Patrol’s stable companion Clowance but went one better here to justify trainer Roger Charlton’s faith in the three-year-old. “He is stepping through the grades and is a horse with a future,” Charlton said before nominating the Prix la Foret as a possible target. “Clowance ran a great race. I thought we were racing for a place as she had been off for so long but the race she ran is a tribute to her guts.”
Diva Dolce provided 17-year-old Longford-born apprentice Darren Egan with the first winner of his career in the six-furlong nursery while Final Flashback’s trainer Pat Flynn doubled up in the concluding handicap with the veteran Worldly Wise.
Danny Grant’s mount continued to advertise the form of last month’s Curragh Cambridgeshire (won by Poet) with a five-length demolition of Harriers Call.
