Harding Plays Hand With Fourjacks

Castletownroche native Brian Harding is riding on a crest of a wave at the moment. On course to having his best season in over ten years, he added another three winners last week to bring his season’s tally to 21.

On Saturday last he got the leg up on Tim Easterby’s Fourjacks in a novice chase at Wetherby. Fourjacks was making his debut over fences and Harding allowed his mount to get steadily into the race after a few errors before staying on well over the last to beat David Pipe’s Poole Master.

Easterby said, “He’s a nice horse, he’s always been a nice horse. He hasn’t had that many runs over hurdles, but he’s eight-years-old now so it was time for him to go over fences, we’ve always thought of him as a chaser.”

Harding went on to record a double on the card with an easy win on the Sue Smith trained Herdsman, in a competitive looking handicap hurdle. Making his handicap debut, Herdsman looked well treated on previous form and duly took advantage. Micheal Meagher, representing the owner of Herdsman said: “He’s a grand horse. We sent him up to Yorkshire for a change of scenery and he ran well behind Fourjacks at Sedgefield, which made him look nicely in today off a mark of 106.”

Moving on to Sunday last and Harding rode a useful looking prospect in the shape of Duke Of Navan, for his old boss Nicky

Richards.

Richards said, “He won well even though they went no pace, he’s a horse who wants a proper gallop and he’s bred to want proper ground. He’s qualified for the Betfair Hurdle now and we’ll see what mark he gets in that and whether he gets in. If he doesn’t he could go for the Dovecote Novice Hurdle at Kempton if we get decent ground, he’s a pure speed horse.”

Positive McLernon Doesn’t Cloud The Issue

Liscarroll jump jockey Richie McLernon had a good week at the office with two nice winners for his boss John Joe O’Neill.

At Ludlow last Wednesday he gave O’Callaghan Strand a positive ride close to the pace to take the handicap chase from Roll The Dice who had beaten him two lengths last time out. On seven pounds better terms McLernon said, “Jumping has made the difference between winning and losing for O’Callaghan Strand as he was very good at his fences. He was also a bit better off with Roll The Dice, who beat him last time, and that helped as well”.

Moving south to Kempton Park on Saturday last and Cloudy Copper looks a very useful horse for owner Gay Smith. Ridden with a lot of confidence by McLernon, this grey son of Cloudings travelled smoothly for an assertive victory from Hold On Julio. He looks a likely Cheltenham prospect with the Albert Bartlett surely being considered at the festival.

O’Neill said, “He did it well today and we’ll see how he takes the race as it took him a couple of months to get over his last race. He’s a nice horse and we’ll just go steady away for now. You can’t tell too much after just two races.” Cloudy Copper was bred and trained by Donal Coffey in Midleton, who also won a point-to-point with him at Lemonfield.

Best of the Rest

Killeagh brothers, Liam and Barry Keniry, rode four winners between them with Liam having three and Barry one. Liam’s winners were Mystical Sapphire for Jo Crowley at Kempton and a brace for trainer David Elsworth with Emerging and Upavon at Lingfield Park. Jump jockey Barry rode a winner for Chris Grant with Notonebuttwo at Kelso on Sunday last.

Fermoy native, David O’Meara will never have another week like last week with nine winners, but he was in the winners’ circle again with Frontier Fighter at Wolverhampton. Another ten winners reported here for the local horse men and women in England in the past week. Have we found a new betting angle???