THE SHUNTER REPAYS HIS RACE FINE

Karl Hedley on a busy time at Irish Festivals

Karl Hedley

Owners of the locally-trained Le Figaro Faoudel had plenty to cheer about at Listowel Festival when defied his odds of 125/1 to record a first career success for Eoin McCarthy.

The five-year-old was having only his third run over hurdles and by winning this he has more than paid his way by recouping all of the €3,000 that he cost at the National Hunt Sale back in 2018. Prior to this effort, he had looked fairly laboured in his runs at Galway and Limerick.

He was always in the mid-division throughout the race, but the further they went, the better he looked. He passed Rippon Lodge who was falling back through the field with ease and kept on doggedly to the run-in.

McCarthy said: “He is a family horse owned by my sister Sarah. I convinced her to buy him at the sales two years ago and he has broken my heart since we got him with little niggles. However, we thought he’d run well today and I might take him back to the sales but we’ll see. We set out our stall at the start of the summer to get a winner here, so this is just great.”

Now that the horse has found the winning habit, it wouldn’t be the biggest of surprises to see him turned out again in the near future.

Adrian McGuiness has been in fine form of late and, despite taking a huge walk in the market, Politicise ran out a comfortable three length winner in a decent two mile handicap, which was the main feature on day two of the Festival. The yard last won this race back in 2004 with Victram and the handler was clearly pleased as punch.

“That was a rare jumps winner for the team. Victram won it back in ’04, so a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. I am delighted for the Dooleys (owners) who teamed up with my Shamrock (Racing Syndicate) Lads to co-own the horse, and my own close friends and family are involved too.