Ship sailing towards Galway
Space Ship jumps the last under Andrew Lynch
Robbie Hennessy's string are in a rich vein of form and the trainer is eyeing up a trip to Galway with Space Ship after his stylish win at Limerick in the Book Online At www.limerickraces.ie Rated Hurdle.
A narrow winner of a maiden hurdle at Down Royal earlier this month, Space Ship's confidence has obviously been boosted by that success.
Andrew Lynch always looked to have matters under control and a huge leap at the last helped seal a three-and-a-quarter-length success.
A breathing operation appears to have worked wonders for Space Ship, who cost Hennessy's father Bill 130,000 guineas out of John Gosden's yard a couple of years ago.
The trainer joked: "That's my third winner in less than two weeks so that's not bad for me!"
He added: " He had his palate done before his win at Down Royal and Andrew said he took another good blow today, so he might come on again from the run. He'll get entries at he Galway Festival."
Eddie Harty has always thought plenty of Minella Foru and he never came off the bridle in winning the Follow Limerick Racecourse On Facebook Beginners Chase.
Ridden by Mark Walsh, who so easily could now be champion jockey if injury had not intervened, the 4-6 favourite cruised to victory by nearly 10 lengths.
"That was a bit overdue, but it was nice. It was a close call to run him (due to the drying ground), but credit where it's due to the racecourse as they have done a fantastic job with the track," said Harty.
"Myself and Frank (Berry, owner JP McManus's racing manager) walked the track and if our race had been on the hurdle track, he wouldn't have run. You could actually hear the difference in the tracks as the horses galloped on them.
"He jumped lovely and straight and Mark did the right thing by taking a lead for as long as possible. We'll go for a winners of one somewhere."
Kevin Sexton rode out his claim when Shesaportrait won the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Chase.
