WEEKEND REPORTS:JOHNNY MURTAGH and Ger Lyons have had their eyes on yesterday's Derrinstown Stud Birdcatcher Nursery for two months, and the long-term plan paid off in style with a dramatic success for Beat Surrender at Naas.
Beat Surrender ran into some potentially top-class horses at York in August in the Acomb Stakes, and afterwards Lyons determined on a route to the Birdcatcher.
The Meath-based trainer was ill with flu and couldn’t attend yesterday, but, always one to keep his finger on modern communication methods, he wrote on his Twitter page just minutes after the race: “Nice to see a plan hatched earlier at York work out: JP Murtagh at his best!”
Lyons could have been forgiven a nervous typing error as Beat Surrender only emerged best by a short head after making all the running and barely hanging on from the well-backed favourite Moonreach.
Beat Surrender’s victory put Murtagh on the 80-winner mark in Ireland this season, just one behind Pat Smullen in their struggle for the jockeys championship.
John Oxx ran two in the Listed Garnet Stakes and, although Mick Kinane was on Zaralanta, it was the Fran Berry-ridden Aspectoflove who secured some valuable winning black type that could yet prevent her being sold next week.
“She is in the autumn sales at Newmarket on Tuesday week, so we will have to discuss keeping her another year or let her go to the sales,” Oxx said.
“She finished 10tenth in her last start at Ascot (Rosemary Stakes), but she got no run and Ryan Moore was quite positive about her afterwards.”
Oxx later doubled up in the mile-and-a-half handicap when Kinane was at his strongest to get the 22 to 1 shot Erdiyna home by a head from Final Approach.
“She’s a filly that has to have perfect conditions,” the trainer said. “She wants this yielding kind of ground, not soft or good to firm, or polytrack. And she wants a mile- and-a-half, not a mile-and-a- quarter. I don’t know if we will be able to repeat these conditions again but she’s well bred and will go to stud.”
Baron De’l was already a Listed winner on the flat before yesterday’s conditions hurdle, which took on a different complexion with Silverhand’s absence (off feed). A relatively steady gallop also helped Eddie Harty’s horse who was four lengths too good for Un Hinged.
“He’s class and the gallop helped a horse able to win a Stakes race at a mile-and-a-quarter. We will look at a Grade Three3 hurdle at Down Royal next,” said Harty, who has employed the former Champion Hurdle winning rider Dean Gallagher as his assistant trainer since the start of September.
“Dean wants to try something different in his life and it’s working out well.”The easiest winner of the day was Willie Mullins’ new recruit Thousand Stars, who could hardly have won any easier under Ruby Walsh.
“Unfortunately he is not in at Thurles on Thursday. I must have been scrimping on entry fees,” joked Mullins, who has had the ex-Larry Byrne trained grey for only a couple of months.
“He hasn’t jumped a fence yet but we could go novice chasing. We’ll see what the handicapper does.”
