Brian O’Connor
Magic Chegaga overcome traffic problems of a different sort to land a fairytale success in Tuesday evening’s Galway feature, the €120,000 Colin Quinn BMW Mile.
Instead, it was Trim-based trainer Brian Duffy who endured a nightmare passage as his horsebox carrying Magic Chegaga to Galway broke down near Rochfortbridge earlier in the day.
The man who trains only four horses wound up praying for help in a nearby church but also had time to organise transport salvation that ultimately delivered his big-race hope to Ballybrit in time.
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In comparison it was a piece of cake for champion jockey Colin Keane to negotiate a route from a ‘car-park’ draw and the 6-1 winner proved half a length too good for Casanova with the 9-2 favourite Cowboy Justice in third.
“You couldn’t make it up,” admitted Duffy who successfully bid just €12,500 in an online auction last year to secure Magic Chegaga for the Co Meath-based Magic Lads syndicate.
Duffy was juggling work for a logistics company with training a tiny string having only just secured his licence and Magic Chegaga was switched to him to train earlier this year.
Despite just three winners prior to Tuesday, he has moulded the Moyglare-bred cast-off out of Dermot Weld’s yard into a big-race festival winner.
“It’s unbelievable to get it amongst all the real trainers – I’m only a minnow!” he said.
Duffy was transporting half his string to Galway in separate boxes and explained: “We were travelling our two horses [Magic Chegaga and Mean Fomhair] in two different boxes and one of them overheated so we ended up getting into a churchyard in Rochfortbridge and we had no choice but to throw them together.”
Sharing didn’t harm Magic Chegaga’s chance and she justified considerable confidence with an ‘SP’ half of her morning price. Mean Fomahir later could manage only sixth in a handicap won by the prolific Dunum.
It was a third BMW Mile for Keane who memorably won on Brendan Brackan in 2013 soon after having crashed his car!
If the big race outcome felt unlikely the old order had earlier been restored when Dermot Weld returned to winning form with a Galway winner possessed of classic potential for 2023.
Tahiyra, a half-sister to the outstanding Breeders Cup winner, Tarnawa, finally ended a run of over 40 days without a winner for one of Irish racing’s seminal figures by recording a stylish debut success.
The 7-2 winner proved 5½ lengths too good for the odds-on Dower House, earning 20-1 quotes for next year’s 1,000 Guineas in the process.
Homeless Songs in May’s Irish 1,000 Guineas has been a rare highpoint of Weld’s year which contained just half a dozen winners in all prior to Tuesday. It has been a scarcely credible run but Galway once again staged a return to form for the man so long renowned as the ‘King of Ballybrit’.
“We had a virus towards the end of the spring and early summer and it has taken me a long time to get shot of it and to get everything clear. It wasn’t easy to identify but I’m happy now we’ve everything right,” said Weld.
September’s Matron Stakes over Irish Champions Weekend is the target for Homeless Songs while the future looks notably bright for Tahiyra after winning a race that two Newmarket Guineas winners in the last decade – Hermosa and Legatissimo – also broke their maiden in.
“At this stage she probably has more pace than Tarnawa. She’s by Siyouni so you’d expect that. Let’s hope she has the wonderful courage and constitution Tarnawa had who was a multiple Group One winner around the world for me,” Weld added.
Owner-trainer Barry Connell is already thinking of Fairyhouse’s Winter Festival and a possible tilt at the Grade One Drinmore Chase for his charge, Enniskerry.
Sean Flanagan’s mount made a winning debut over fences by making all to land a Beginners event.
“There isn’t much more for him now and we might give him a little break and come back for something like the Drinmore,” Connell said.
Jockey Gavin Ryan, successful on Coreman in a maiden, doubled up on Clear Quartz in the concluding handicap.
Tuesday’s attendance was 13,132 compared to a corresponding 2019 figure of 14,596.
