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JARED HARRIS REPORTS
The Kempton Park Racecourse in England had a busy slate of events on Wednesday last, October 8th, with a number of high-profile horses from around the world making the trip. The majority of the jockeys participating were from the UK. However, southern Ireland was represented rather thoroughly by Tom Queally, who competed in five of the day's events. A native of Dungarvan, he is best known for having partnered with trainer Henry Cecil in the past.
At Kempton Park, though, Queally was working with multiple trainers, and horses from Ireland, France and the USA. Here's our look at how the Irish native fared.
The first race, the 6f Claim Stakes, ended up somewhat inconsequential, with Queally riding the French Mister Arden for HJL Dunlop and finishing in 8th place. There was some small achievement in this, as Queally managed to outstrip Zeb’s Lad, who was expected to finish ahead. Ultimately, it was never expected that Mister Arden would be competitive in the Claim Stakes.
The 7f Maiden Stakes in the 1st Division brought no greater glory for Queally, who finished 11th riding Irish-born Red Unico for AJ McCabe. Again, this was not a race in which Queally and co were expected to compete, opening at 100/1 odds, but it still would have been nice to finish a few positions higher than expected.
Following this, the 2nd Division of the same race treated Queally the same, as he once again finished 11th. This time, he was riding Red Touch. This was the greater disappointment of the two. The 2nd Division offered Queally and Red Touch far more favourable 33/1 odds, and the pair were beaten by multiple horses with equal or worse odds. Most notably, Irish horse Master Choice and jockey Liam Jones squeezed their way into a 9th place finish, despite 100/1 odds on the event.
BETTER PERFORMANCE
From there, however, things took a positive turn for Queally, who represented Ireland quite well in the final two races. In the 1m3f Median Auction Maiden, opening at 12/1 odds, Queally secured a 4th place finish. In this race, he rode HJL Dunlop's Black Label and came quite close to a top-3 finish. Riding in 3rd position, Queally was edged out by the riders in 1st (Andrea Atzeni riding Panatella) and 2nd position (Martin Harley riding Steppe Daughter, another Irish horse). All in all, this was the highlight of the day for Queally.
Although, the last race did mark a fairly strong finish to the day. In the 7f Live The Moment Handicap, he took 7th place, riding American horse Baynunah for trainer JR Fanshawe. While 7th place is nothing for Queally to take great pride in, it is worth noting that he competed favourably with some strong competition. Just before Wednesday's races at Kempton, Baynunah was named as a contender – tabbed Irish horse Twenty One Choice (ridden by DJ Bates) as the likely winner. In the end, Twenty One Choice finished just one spot ahead of Queally and Baynunah, which was some consolation at the end of a difficult day.
While it wasn't Tom Queally's finest day in racing, he did however make a strong show of it in the final two events. That's particularly true when you consider it was an event near London, largely dominated by jockeys from the UK.
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