RACING:PENNY'S BILL might have been a 50 to 1 shot for yesterday's Pierse Hurdle at Leopardstown, but a horse nursing a cough almost 200 miles away helped him to a dramatic, big-race success for trainer Liz Doyle.
The winning trainer is a daughter of the Fine Gael MEP for Leinster, Avril Doyle, who last week announced she will not be running for re-election in this summer's European elections. After yesterday's chain of events, that is probably good news for her opponents, as the Doyle family luck was in with a vengeance yesterday for Irish racing's first major prize of 2009.
The shape of the €110,000 handicap, always one of the most competitive races of the year, was thrown on its head in the morning as the topweight, Newmill, was withdrawn. His west Cork trainer, John Murphy, reported the horse was coughing. That resulted in an automatic rise in the weights, but a Horse Racing Ireland directive that the minimum topweight for the Pierse has to be 11st 10lb resulted in frustration among connections of many of the fancied runners as the weights rose by 8lb.
"I think it is unfair for everyone in a race like the Pierse when we end up changing weights and changing jockeys," said Dermot Weld, who ran Vital Plot. "I gather the bottom weight is 6lb out of the weights. I can't see an argument against simply raising the bottom horse to its correct weight."
That bottom horse was Penny's Bill, number 30 of the 30 runners, whose chance was mostly dismissed by punters after not winning in over a year. Co Wexford-based Doyle had also been having a barren spell in recent months.
However, all that was forgotten as Penny's Bill and jockey Seán Flanagan raced in the first three throughout, and kicked clear early in the straight to record the longest priced win in the 40-year history of the race.
The well-backed Psycho was originally due to race off 10st 10lb, but ended up carrying 11st 4lb, and it was the Tony Martin-trained 11 to 2 favourite who emerged as Penny's Bill's big danger. Psycho closed all the way to the line but came up a head short.
"It's amazing," said Doyle, a former champion point-to-point rider. "We came here hoping for prize-money, but Newmill coming out has made it for me. It has made a big difference. I figured we were right in there with them then. The weight rise helped us and it was a disadvantage to everyone else.
"He ran a lovely race here on his last start (on St Stephen's Day), and on that form he had a good each-way squeak. He is a good-galloping two-mile horse who wants good ground and this is amazing. But there was only a head in it and the weights made a big difference. Everything's come right for us."
It was the biggest success of Doyle's career and for Flanagan who had finished runner-up on Brave Right in the 2008 Pierse.
"I rode pretty much the same sort of race. He settled well on the good gallop and picked up well when I kicked," said Flanagan. "The horse doesn't know what price he is and I fancied him a bit before the race."
Bookmakers were saved a major pay-out on Psycho, and the favourite's jockey, Davy Russell, had no doubt the weights issue was decisive. "That was some run. The weights made all the difference. It put the winner 2lb right in the handicap. You could say it cost us the race," he said.
Psycho's trainer, Tony Martin, was disappointed, but said: "I'm not complaining. They are the rules, and fair play to Liz."
Carthalawn was a length and a quarter back in third with Splurge in fourth.
Yesterday's crowd of 6,572 was down almost 1,000 on last year, and bookmaker turnover dropped €846,954 to €917,105. The Tote was down €80,000 to €393,197.
