RACING: Johnny Murtagh warmed up for his Budweiser Irish Derby ride on Alamshar with a success at Leopardstown that had a string in the tail.
The former champion jockey managed to get the well backed favourite Montevideo home by three-quarters of a length in the mile-and-a-half maiden after a less than straight forward ride.
Montevideo hung left on to the third Ibtecar inside the final furlong causing Kevin Manning to snatch up dramatically.
Prominent Feature was the main threat on the outside but Murtagh's mount eventually straightened up to ultimately win cosily.
The stewards took a dim view of the incident, however, and handed Murtagh a two-day ban for careless riding. The suspension takes effect on July 4th and 5th, which is Coral-Eclipse day at Sandown, but as the latter is a Group One contest, Murtagh can apply to have the ban deferred.
Michael Kinane repeated the front-running performance that had previously got Irish Stream home at Naas and the Dessie Hughes-trained horse was even more impressive this time in the nine-furlong handicap.
"He's in at the Curragh on Friday and I might run him," said Hughes. "Mick said to claim off him and he might be right. Except it will be hard to get a claimer as good as him!"
That point was emphasised just half an hour later when Kinane again went straight to the lead in the seven-furlong handicap and the topweight Sophister caught the mood.
Oriental Ben may have only a fraction of the talent of his half brother High Chaparral but the five-year-old had his glory day in the apprentice handicap.
Owned by the six-member Right So Syndicate from Donard in Co Wicklow, the 10 to 1 shot provided Davy Condon with a seventh success of the season.
The crowd of over 9,000, which was boosted by the 5,000 people associated with the Special Olympics, witnessed a thrilling finish to the last when Masteroffoxhounds just edged out Saintly Rachel after a titanic battle in the final furlong.
The former conditional champion jockey Jimmy Mansell will be released from St Vincent's Hospital today after successful throat surgery.
Mansell was seriously injured in a fall at Ballinrobe last summer and has had a long struggle to regain fitness.
"It was very intricate, high risk surgery but everything went perfectly. Jimmy is in tremendous form," said the Turf Club medical officer Dr Walter Halley last night.
Meanwhile, Officials at the Curragh racecourse were watering the track again yesterday ahead of the weekend's Budweiser Irish Derby meeting.
Racing manager Paul Hensey was expected to keep watering until last night but some rain is expected today.
He said: "The going is good to firm and we are watering at present and will do so until into the evening. Up to two millimetres are due in showers tomorrow night and we'll review the situation on Friday morning."
