The King George winning team of Tom Taaffe and Barry Geraghty hit the spot again at Leopardstown yesterday when Emotional Moment galloped resolutely through the deep ground to win the Grade Two woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle.
Taaffe conceded that celebrating Kicking King's brilliant success had made an impact and joked: "All I can say is thank God the horses are feeling better than I am."
If Geraghty was feeling a little shook at the end of the afternoon, he could hardly be blamed since the champion jockey had the sort of day that could define the phrase "up and down."
Geraghty also won the opening maiden hurdle on the favourite Akshar but his four other rides all resulted in falls including Rule Supreme's last fence exit in the Lexus.
There was no such drama with Emotional Moment who took up the running before the back straight and had victory secured well before the favourite Rosaker was pulled up before the last.
"He's an amazing little horse. He handles any ground and that's his 10th win. He is in the Stayers (Ladbrokes World Hurdle) and even though I don't think he is up to the Baracouda class, we'll probably take a sporting chance," said Taaffe.
The Cheltenham sponsors promptly went as low as 12 to 1 for the festival but Cashmans decided Emotional Moment is more of a 40 to 1 shot.
If the Taaffe runner appeared to make light of the conditions, there was nothing light about the Ascon-Rohcon Chase which saw Forget The Past beating Leading The Way and Mutineer after a gruelling struggle.
The 4 to 7 favourite Mark The Man made a mistake at the third last and was pulled up after the second last. A veterinary exam found the Noel Meade runner to be "distressed" afterwards.
"Obviously something was amiss. He was gone too far out," said Meade but it was the amateur rider Denis Cullen who picked up the Grade One prize after getting Forget The Past to beat the 20 to 1 runner-up by three parts of a length.
Blazing Liss received quotes of as low as 12 to 1 for the Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham by picking up the O2 Hurdle in easy fashion. However, her task was eased by Rockstown Boy's fall at the third flight.
"That made it easier but her jumping does seem to have improved on soft ground," said the winning trainer John Kiely.
Geraghty's earlier winner had been a much more narrow affair as it was only in the last few strides that Akshar got the better of Ocras Mor.
"If he hadn't won today he was going to go to Dubai with One More Round and King Jock," said Dermot Weld. "So he has missed out on a flight to the sun."
The eclipse of favourite County Final in the bumper completed a bad day for the Meade team but some punters got it right with Blueberry Boy.
One of only six horses trained in Oldtown, Co Dublin, by Paul Stafford, Blueberry Boy was just a second winner for the trainer since he took out a licence.
A crowd of 19,322 was the best of the week at Leopardstown and they bet a tote turnover of €602,915 which was over 43,000 up on last year's figure. The Bookmaker turnover was down almost quarter of a million, however, to €2,644,570 despite 640,816 being bet on the featured Lexus Chase.
