Dungarvan jockeys Niall Houlihan and Trevor Whelan found themselves in the winners enclosure four times overseas today, with young Houlihan’s treble at Plumpton and Whelan’s 22/1 winner at Bath seeing the duo combine for a whopping 468/1 local four-fold.
The day’s local success started with a 22/1 win for Trevor Whelan in the 1.35 contest at Bath, as he landed to the line by the tightest of margins to edge out Mr Beaufort aboard the Ronald Harris trained Glamorous Express.
In the 3.05 class 5 affair at Plumpton, Niall Houlihan got his superb day off to a similar start when he rode Hacksbridge, trained by his uncle and Ballylaneen native Pat Phelan, to victory at odds of 10/3, beating the 5/6 favourite Sergeant by a neck in a tight finish.
In the next at the track, Houlihan made it two on the spin when successful on Richard Rowe’s Up The Straight. It was a comfortable 14-length success for the youngster and his mount after the favourite, Botox Has fell in this three horse race, leaving it between Houlihan and Gavin Sheehan aboard Pisgah Pike who he duly left for dust.
A memorable day in the hearts and minds of Dungarvan racing fanatics saw the cherry land atop the icing on the cake when Houlihan landed his three-timer courtesy of a superb jumping display from well fancied 4/7 favourite Royaume Uni, trained by Gary Moore.
He pulled clear of the field to score by eight and a half lengths to duly record his first win over hurdles for his owner Mrs. E. Avery.
There was also very nearly even more success as Niall’s brother Sean was a 22/1 second in the 2.30 at Plumpton aboard the Cynthia Woods trained Auld Sod, while Trevor Whelan was just one and a quarter lengths shy of landing a 436/1 double of his own at Bath when second aboard the 18/1 shot Mabo trained by Grace Harris in the 15:55 race.
