ENERGUMENE CAN TROUBLE SHISHKIN

Karl Hedley reviews the latest action in Ireland

- Karl Hedley

Ahead of another thrilling Cheltenham Festival, I shall provide you with a breakdown of the likely Irish contenders for some of the major prizes as well as taking a look at a few who may have gone under the radar

There was an exciting renewal of the Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park at the tail end of January that could potentially throw up a decent challenger to the likes of Paisley Park and Thyme Hill in the Stayers’ Hurlde at the Festival. The winner of the race was Sams Profile who wore a hood for the first time and was returning to hurdles having made a couple of appearances over the larger obstacles. He has only had a handful of runs over them but has now won two since joining Mouse Morris in 2018.

The likeable son of Black Sam Bellamy is as big as 20/1 in places for the showpiece on the third day of the meeting. He got a ground-saving ride around the inner from before the straight and battled on well to see off the Michael O’Leary-owned pair of Diol Ker and Sixshooter. After making a blip at the last flight, he seemed to roll around a little when in front but caused no real damage to the runnerup. He still had to survive a stewards’ enquiry but there was very little surprise when the placings remained unaltered.

Phillip Enright said afterwards:

“Mouse had said he’d been making the running over fences and had been quite hard on himself. They tried the hood on him at home and they have done a brilliant job in getting him settled like a dream today.