There’s often a “phoney war” air to some of the flat action at the height of jump racing’s festival campaign, but there was nothing phoney about Custom Cut’s 25-1 shock win in yesterday’s Curragh Group Three feature .
The outsider of nine for the Big Bad Bob Gladness Stakes made the running and repelled the challenges of Aidan O'Brien's Nephrite and former Group One heroine La Collina.
It was a landmark first Group race win for last year's champion apprentice jockey Ronan Whelan and a potentially more significant success for Co Waterford trainer George Kent.
Custom Cut was a €5,800 discard from Dermot Weld’s yard and this victory is the sort of fairy-tale stuff more usually associated with jumps rather than a tiny operation from a family-run stud in Tramore.
Different level
But Custom Cut, a half-brother to the high-class Sapphire but originally bought to be a lead-horse, rewarded the Kents with a four-in-a-row streak in 2012 and has now taken things to a different level again.
“If you’re a small yard, you need a horse like this. We came here today on a fact-finding mission and I suppose we’ve found out!” smiled George Kent jnr, assistant to his father.
Custom Cut could now appear in a Listed race at Leopardstown this Sunday, possibly another opportunity for Whelan (19) to gild a growing reputation.
“He likes his own way out in front and just kept winding it up and winding it up,” said the jockey before later doubling up in the mile and a half handicap aboard Tantalising.
Whelan's boss Jim Bolger has started the turf campaign with a vengeance and last year's Dewhurst champion Dawn Approach remains on target for the 2,000 Guineas.
However, it was Bolger’s 2011 Dewhurst victor Parish Hall that was the focus of attention as he gained length-and-a-half success in the Listed Alleged Stakes .
Bad infection
“We nearly lost him last year as he had a very bad infection in his near hind joint. It took a while to respond to the antibiotics. It then burst out and damaged his tendon behind,” said Bolger. “It's all repaired well now but it was touch and go and we never found the source of the infection.”
The leading Ballydoyle lights rarely start to glow before the Guineas, but there was nothing phoney either about how Moth broke her maiden over seven furlongs yesterday.
Despite Joseph O'Brien carrying 1lb overweight the Galileo filly won at a canter.
Moth doesn’t hold a 1,000 Guineas entry at Newmarket but was installed as a 16-1 shot by Stan James and Aidan O’Brien said: “She could go for a Guineas Trial, or go straight there. It was a slowly run race and she really quickened up.”
The O’Briens were denied in the juvenile event by Paul Deegan’s newcomer Fast In The Wind, but wound the day up with their own winning debutant, Ruler Of The World.
