Aidan O'Brien and Jim Bolger may have grabbed the training headlines on the first two days of Tralee but the traditional festival king, Dermot Weld, hit back in style with a double through Musical Mayhem and Skipo yesterday.

Weld's powerful Curragh yard has been firing at a less spectacular rate than usual this season with the dreaded virus making its presence felt but there was no sign of that when Musical Mayhem brought his score to five out of six this year in the Carrolls Ladies Race.

Musical Mayhem showed admirable tenacity in beating the favourite Darbela by a neck in the 12-furlong contest but he was undoubtedly helped by an excellent ride from Shona McDonogh who was adding to her only previous racecourse success on another Weld horse Abaco. Sticking to the rails in the home straight, McDonogh (21) doggedly forced Musical Mayhem home when for most of the stretch, Darbela looked to be going the better.

"Shona gave Abaco a lovely ride at Leopardstown and has ridden even better here," a delighted Weld said. "Tactics totally won the race."

Michael Kinane learned that a long time ago in his illustrious career and while Skipo's win in the Tankard Handicap will hardly rate a full chapter when he looks back at that career, it did show how useful the grey can be at this best. Carrying top-weight, Skipo pounced late with a useful burst of speed to beat Miss Indonesia by a length and a half.

O'Brien and Bolger were not idle during the day, however. Colm's Rock put his Galway Hurdle winning stable-mate Toast The Spreece in the shade when winning the Nash's Handicap Hurdle from the outsider Fontaine Lodge with Toast The Spreece third.

The favourite Saving Bond took a crashing fall at the second last when he had just been headed by the winner but Charlie Swan reported that Toast The Spreece had struck into himself at the third flight.

Bolger introduced a very promising two-year-old in Sabre Mountain who quickened from the front to settle the Byrne-Norris Maiden in a couple of strides.