PAT HEALY: Pat starts with the news that Jack Kennedy has ridden his 500th winner – a remarkable achievement given the injuries he’s endured.
500 up for Jack Kennedy
Jack Kennedy (pictured below) rode his 500th career success at Downpatrick last Friday. It’s a fantastic achievement for such a young man. The highlight of his 500 winners would of course be his Gold Cup success aboard Minella Indo.
We all know the amount of injuries he’s had and to keep coming back again and again takes some doing. Please God he’ll stay in one piece, and we look forward to him reaching more milestones in the coming years.
Tommy Kinane
Sunday brought the news of the passing of Tommy Kinane at 90 years of age. Tommy was a larger-than-life character who will be forever associated with the brilliant Monksfield, who won the 1978 Champion Hurdle. Monksfield was probably one of the best of a golden era of Champion Hurdlers and in 1978 Tommy steered him home to beat both Sea Pigeon and Night Nurse.
All of Tommy’s sons were jockeys, with the best known of them being Mick, who was Champion Jockey 13 times, but also Tommy Jr, Jayo and Paul.
We pass on our condolences to the boys and also his daughters Suzanne, Kathryn and Janette.
Around the Point-to-Points last weekend
Last weekend carried me to a couple of Point-to-Point race meetings. On Saturday I was in Toomebridge, in County Antrim, where there was a great crowd and beautiful weather.
The highlight of the day was Dara McGill riding a double, with both winners trained by Gerald Quinn. There were two four-year-old maidens on the card, and a Mount Nelson mare, called Peggy’s Rock, won the mares’ maiden for Michael Goff, while the geldings’ maiden was won by Caughtinyourtrance, a son of Ocavango, for Matthew Flynn O’Connor.
Sunday brought us to Loughrea in County Galway, where Declan Queally trained a treble on the card. Declan actually rode Wrong Direction to win himself, on what was his first ride in Point-to-Points since 2020.
He also won the four-year-old maiden on the card with a gelding by Brametot called Olympy De Cerisy.
Looking ahead
We’re looking forward to the weekend where Naas have a two-day Flat fixture.
There’s also the Dewhurst and Cesarewitch from Newmarket, where they’ll be plenty of Irish interest.
I think all eyes will be on the Dewhurst, where hopefully City Of Troy (pictured below) will turn up. He didn’t run at the Curragh last month because of the ground, but he’ll be bidding to sign off his two-year-old campaign unbeaten by providing Aidan [O’Brien] with an eighth Dewhurst success. He’ll have to put in an impressive performance of course as there’s lots of strong opposition set to line up. I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on.
Take Care
PAT
