Fairyhouse Report: Justified and Tony McCoy finally ended a three-month nightmare for Eamon "Dusty" Sheehy with a doggedly determined success in yesterday's Grade One Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse.
The Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny trainer had not managed to saddle a winner since Justified himself won at Newbury in mid-January and the intervening period was arid enough for Sheehy to be pressing his nickname into extra use. "Very lean," was his more understated description of the last three months after yesterday's prestigious success but the admission that he was "on a bit of a high" told a lot about the expectation on Justified in the €100,000 feature.
That the horse brought it off is a tribute to his perseverance as he made all the running and overcame a potentially ruinous habit of jumping to the left in holding off the favourite In Compliance by three lengths.
McCoy's report that he still had plenty of horse under him at the line also made quotes of as low as 16 to 1 for next season's Queen Mother Champion Chase seem less than outrageous. But for Sheehy the concerns were more short-term.
"We've been struggling all year and it's been a very lean spell since Christmas," he said. "Once we fixed one thing, something else came up, but I knew if he was back to his best he would put it up to these."
A good performance by Aleatory at Cork on Saturday indicated an upswing in fortunes and Justified duly powered his way to a first top-level victory.
The pace he set was enough to put both Wild Passion (fifth fence) and Missed That (seventh) on the floor and although In Compliance looked to be going well for Barry Geraghty before the straight he only stayed on at one pace. His trainer Michael O'Brien was disappointed with the result and said afterwards: "In hindsight, he rode the horse the wrong way. He should've been closer to the pace."
Justified will end his season at Punchestown in either the two mile novice event or the Champion Chase itself. McCoy was first choice for Justified but the 10 times champion jockey was in the unusual position of being only third choice for Vic Venturi who narrowly beat the favourite Mounthenry in the Grade Two novice hurdle.
"Davy Russell was unavailable and Andrew McNamara was on Mounthenry but thankfully Tony was free to ride for me for the first time," smiled trainer Philip Fenton who also won the race with Sher Beau in 2005. "He kept jumping left but he's good in a battle."
Celestial Wave was a warm favourite for the Grade Three mares final but found the 12 to 1 outsider, Cailin Alainn, two lengths too good despite the latter nearly being brought down at half-way. Brave Inca's former rider, Barry Cash, still managed to bring the winner through in the straight and trainer Charles Byrnes will now try and find a race for Cailin Alainn at Punchestown.
For a long way in the maiden hurdle it looked like Cash might double up on the 50 to 1 shot Thunder Alley but a long lead disappeared by the last and it was Wine Fountain who emerged best for Dun Doire's trainer Tony Martin.
Ground that was officially good to yielding proved no problem to Wine Fountain and looking ahead to today's National, Martin, who saddles the favourite Dun Doire, said: "If it was today I'd have no problem running him. It's just on the yielding side. But I wouldn't like it to dry out any more."
Martin had earlier been denied in the novice handicap as the topweight, Royal County Star, came up a length and a half short of Laureldean who was a first winner for Robbie Power since the jockey returned from injury. Laureldean could try for a quick follow-up over fences here tomorrow.
The former Minister for Finance and European Commissioner Ray MacSharry saw his colours carried to victory in the opening Beginners Chase when Handsuposcar pounced to deny the Legendsofthefall.
• A crowd of almost 7,500 attended the opening day of Fairyhouse's Easter festival, an increase of 1,000 on last year's figure.
There was also a significant increase in bookmaker turnover with a total of €1.3 million yesterday up over €400,000 on last year.
The Tote figure of €282,342 was up over €50,000 on the 2005 figure.
