Aug_120_View_From_Ireland-v2_Owner Breeder 18/07/2014 16:24 Page 26
VIEW FROM IRELAND
In Brief
GEORGE SELWYN
Moriarty and Keatley ones to watch
Missunited (left) ran a tremendously game race in the Ascot showpiece
Gold Cup third now too valuable for hurdles runs Missunited has become the latest top mare to quit hurdling and have the breeding shed put on her agenda. The Ascot Gold Cup third did not defend her Guinness Galway Hurdle crown last month and will be covered next year, following Cheltenham Festival heroine Quevega into a new career as a broodmare. Trainer Mick Winters said: “She is just too valuable now and her owners are only comfortable running her on the Flat. In fairness she’s been an amazing mare. She’s fierce, solid and has never stopped progressing. “My only regret was not running her in the
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He said: “It’s much ado about nothing. Australia is a wonder horse and nobody wanted to take him on, but he showed us something and he trounced Derby trial winners. He could do no more than that. We didn’t complain about Frankel’s lack of competition and this horse is the closest thing Ireland has to him.” It was the second time in three years the Irish Classic had only five runners. Most commentators kept returning to the fact that there is a worldwide lack of middle-distance horses due to people’s lack of patience and a preoccupation with breeding for speed. Trainer Ger Lyons took to Facebook to express his defence of the race, calling for critics to not hit out at those that turned up for the race but “question those who did not”. “Where are the big pedigree horses from
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Grade 1 mares’ hurdle at Punchestown in the spring. I thought I was being cute and protecting her handicap mark for the Galway Hurdle, but when we got the idea to go to the Ascot Gold Cup, Galway sort of went out the window. That Grade 1 would have been great on her page. “I would imagine she won’t race next year but I don’t know for sure.” It leaves the Willie Mullins-trained Annie Power, second in last season’s World Hurdle, with few formidable rivals should she be aimed at the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, the race that Quevega made her own with six wins.
Tattersalls Book 1 and the Goffs Orby Sale?” he added. There were few fireworks at the corresponding Goffs Orby Sale in 2012, but at Tattersalls in the same October, the Galileo half-brother to Epsom Derby hero Authorized, Hydrogen, made 2.85 million guineas and the first foal out of four-time Group 1 winner Alexander Goldrun, Humphrey Bogart, made 950,000 guineas. Owned by Qatar Racing and Coolmore, neither ran as two-year-olds and Hydrogen has run only once this year, though he does hold an entry in next month’s Irish Champion Stakes. Six of the 11 colts that made 500,000 guineas or more in Tattersalls Book 1 have yet to run and only Hydrogen, Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Altaayil and the Irish Derby winner himself, Australia, have run at all this year.
Killarney teenager Keith Moriarty emerged as an apprentice to follow in June when winning on his first mount, Calm Bay, at Navan. Moriarty was a green rider on the pony racing circuit, but under the guidance of father and son team Tommy and Fozzy Stack is gaining in confidence and realising his potential. His victory came for County Louth trainer Harry Rogers. There were also fireworks in the rookie training ranks as Kildare native Adrian Keatley won with three of his first ten runners on the Flat in Ireland and Britain. Keatley made his name as assistant to jump trainer Oliver McKiernan in a prolific era for the Dublin-based outfit. He then moved to Australia to gain experience in high-profile Flat yards, before returning to Ireland last year to work on becoming a trainer himself. He was granted a licence in May.
Legislation bill Rapid progress on a crucial piece of legislation that will modernise the way the gambling industry is governed could lead to enactment by the end of this month. The Betting (Amendment) Bill’s completion has been promised by the Department of Finance to the Irish Bookmakers’ Association before September 1 to ensure that the 500 workers taken on each summer are not laid off. The part-time jobs come into effect in the spring, when bookmakers’ shop opening hours are lengthened, but current law limits this from September 1. The bill will also facilitate the taxing of remote betting in Ireland for the first time, generating more money for the Exchequer, which could be put towards racing. The submission hearings for the first draft of the Horse Racing Ireland (Amendment) Bill have also been completed. The legislation will reshape the way Irish racing is run, streamlining functions between HRI and the Turf Club and giving the minister for agriculture, food and the marine more control over both.
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER