Double win for JP McManus at Powerstown Park where focus now turns to November 7 meet

Leading racehorse owner JP McManus expects to be represented by his 2021 winner Fakir D’Oudairies in the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Steeplechase at Powerstown Park Racecourse in Clonmel on Thursday, November 7. 

He had a double win at last Thursday’s Clonmel races with the Padraig Roche-trained duo Win Some Lose Some and Birdsandthebees.

McManus’s representative Frank Berry said afterwards the plan at that moment was to run Fakir D'Oudairies in Clonmel on November 7. Fakir D’Oudairies is trained just a few miles away from Powerstown by Joseph O’Brien at Owning Hill.

The owner’s wife Noreen breeds a lot of their bloodstock at Martinstown Stud from mares that they raced and Rathgormack Handicap Hurdle winner Win Some Lose Some is out of a daughter of their Grade 3 winner Like A Butterfly. The five-year-old quickened up well for rider Mark Walsh to get the better of Old Bill Barley close home by three parts of a length at Clonmel last Thursday, October 24.

“He’s from a family that’s been great for us and he’s still learning a bit,” said Roche.  Birdsandthebees, which he also trains, followed up with winning last Thursday's concluding race - the Clonmel Oil Chase Day November 7^th Handicap Chase.  The horse was ridden by Peter Smithers. 

“She’s been frustrating as we thought she would have won something by now,” her Curragh trainer admitted, adding “We have a small number of horses for the winter but a few nice ones among them and the team are in good form now.”

Waterford-based trainer Henry de Bromhead enjoys a good strike rate at the track and he was on the mark courtesy of Tareze who possibly had luck on her side when carrying the colours of her American owner Sally Rowley-Williams to a first success in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle.

Darragh O’Keeffe deputised for the injured Rachael Blackmore on the favourite who was ‘gifted’ the race when long-time leader Cottesloe Sunshine Leader stepped at the final flight and unseated Richie Deegan.

De Bromhead, who indicated that Robcour’s 162-rated Journey With Me, winner of three of his eight runs over fences, could be the stable’s representative in the Clonmel Oil Chase, was delighted with the result.

He said: “Sally has been a tremendous supporter of ours for years and it’s lovely to see her win with a really nice home-bred.  She was a nice mare in the spring but I felt she’d do better with a bit of time under her belt and she’ll improve plenty from it.”

Moyglass jockey Philip Enright combined with Oliver McKiernan to take the Coumshingaun Handicap Chase with Winding River who held Clonbury Bridge by a length and a quarter.  There was a poignant victory for Gordon Elliott’s Shecouldbeanything who brought up a hat-trick over fences in the Mahon Falls Mares Chase. Sam Ewing’s mount is owned by Tipperary man Michael Hanrahan whose wife Nora sadly died the previous week.

The winter season at Powerstown is really getting into its stride now with the €60,000 Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase next up for decision on November 7, followed by the Jim Strang & Sons Kilsheelan Peugeot Hurdle on Tuesday, December 3.

The Clonmel Oil Steeplechase race is in its 22^nd year of sponsorship by Sean Connolly. The race has an impressive roll of honour that includes Imperial Call, Doran's Pride, War Of Attrition, Sizing Europe, Douvan and last year’s multiple Grade 1 winner Allaho.

There is a top-class supporting card and the first race is due off at 12.20pm. There will also be live music after racing in the Club Stand bar.

Caption for picture above: Members of the Whitegrass Racing Syndicate receiving a trophy from DJ Histon, Manager of Clonmel's Powerstown Park Racecourse following the success of the Willie Mullins trained, Straight Home, in the Kilclooney Woods Handicap Hurdle at Clonmel last Thursday, October 24.