DERMOT WELD, who saddled a brace of winners at Galway on Monday, finished with four more yesterday, notably in landing the McDonogh Handicap with Pro Trader. He also took the maiden hurdle with Celtic Lore, the McDonogh Maiden with Peehora and the final race with Trade Dispute.
Pro Trader, the easiest of Weld's five winners of the festival's second-day feature, and perhaps the easiest in the 24 runnings of this competitive race, has run for the last time in Ireland. This progressive and consistent Canadian owned three-year-old will next race in either Canada or America.
Sixth or seventh on the outside on the uphill run, Pro Trader picked up the disputing Flaunt and Meglio Che Posso in a few ground-devouring strides and shot clear to a seven-length success.
Owned by stockbroker John Gunther, Pro Trader was reckoned to be a little unlucky when runner-up to I'm Supposin in the Ulster Harp Derby on his previous appearance. He is only the fourth three-year-old to win the McDonogh Handicap which rider Michael Kinane has now won four times.
The gambled-on favourite Sheffield sweated her chance away before the start and finished last She was found to be respiratory distressed. Silvian Bliss, stable-companion to the winner, finished a rather luckless fourth.
Surprisingly, the market for the McDonogh Fillies Maiden was weak - maybe there was too much talk about this and that made punters wary - but the Aidan O'Brien trained favourite Air Of Distinction was disappointing, though it takes a good two-year-old to win a decent maiden over this course first time of asking.
With two races under her girths, the winner Footlight had the experience, though her handler John Oxx, who saddled Gariyba to take Monday's feature, was led to believe she might find one or two too good for her. She was unlucky at Roscommon on her previous outing but was not punished when her chance had gone. Lady Clague's big filly, who kept Katydid at bay to win by a length, cost 36,000 guineas at Goffs.
The further he went, the better the Dermot Weld trained Celtic Lore responded. The Adrian Maguire ridden Sentosa Star looked a real threat as the partnership closed on the outside to the last flight in the Albatros Maiden Hurdle but he found little as Richard Dunwoody kept Celtic Lore, in front with a circuit to cover on the stretch, to win by four and a half lengths. The winner was earmarked to carry his 7lb penalty in today's opener but he tied up with a muscular spasm after returning to the padddock.
Stroll Home and Paul Carberry - none the worse for his tumble on Life Support in the opener - made every yard to win the Albatross Chase. At 12 to 1, the Jimmy Mangan trained triple point-to-point winner was the first turn-up of the meeting.
I'd have given him away last year, he ran so diabolically but we discovered he had a lung infection," said Stroll Home's Conna, Co Cork, trainer who has never before saddled a winner at Galway. "I haven't had runners here anyhow," he countered. Tony McCoy picked up a four-day suspension for excessive use of the whip on the runner-up, Mile A Minute, and this followed a two-day ban for a similar offence on Monday.
Dermot Kelly, based on the Curragh, also celebrated his first winner at Ballybrit when the Wayne Smith-partnered rank outsider Shahnaad held the late challenge of Regal Domain by a neck in the Suregrass Handicap.
