Yesterday could probably go down as Super Sunday in Ireland with no less than five meetings taking place, of which the most prestigious was staged at Enniscorthy.
The Wexford Leger has a tremendous history dating back to the days when it was dominated by the locally bred ‘Monalee’ prefix. This year’s €5,500 final went to the Brian Ellard trained 5-1 chance Rental Dispute, who reversed heat and semi form with Jaytee Spirit. The feature event though, the €8,000 Future Champion Unraced went to a prefix as famous in Kerry, as the ‘Monalee’ name once was in Wexford, Ballymac Inspeed. Liam Dowling’s 7-4f got home by a neck in 28.93 (-30).
Clonmel was running particularly fast on Sunday night which featured the second round of the Munster Juvenile and a decent bitch stake. Six of the nine winners broke 29.00. Taking age and experience into account, the narrowest of nominations goes to bitch pup Wise Direction with a 28.90 run.
When it comes to competitive finals, are Mullingar due to stage the absolute ultimate next weekend? In the first semi final of the track’s traditional major 400m feature, the Fair Warrior Sprint, the winner Knockalton Guy got home by a head, with a dead heat for second, and a winning time of 21.98 (-20). Cronody Tadhg won the second semi in another three-way photo (sh, sh) in 21.94 (-20). In other words, five spots separate all six runners.
At Limerick, all thoughts are on the forthcoming St.Leger and in addition to some flying 525 yard trials, some of the big hitters have raced over the 550 yard course. Quickest was the classy Jaytee Taylor (29.53), though the nomination goes to Lenson Austin (29.61) who is still four months short of his second birthday.
On the subject of fast pups, check out April youngster Meenagh Maverick, who was only one spot off Drumbo’s fastest 525 of the year at the weekend.
Finally another victory for super sprinter, Blame The Game. Although he wasn’t able to reproduce his sub track record sprint trial in race conditions, his 18.62 for the 350 yards at Dundalk was still the quickest of the year.
| CLONMEL | 28.90 | WISE DIRECTION | (Belles Direction-Beakstown Dazl, Mar 18) |
| CURRAHEEN PARK | 28.37 | BERTIES BOYS | (Droopys Sydney-Miss Verlingo, Sep 16) |
| DERRY | 28.20 | POIROT | (Superior Product-Heathlawn Queen, Mar 18) |
| DRUMBO PARK | 28.30 | MEENAGH MAVERICK | (Droopys Roddick-Slippery Cinders, Apr 18) |
| DUNDALK PARK | 18.62 | BLAME THE GAME | (Laughil Blake-Rios Girl, Sep 16) |
| ENNISCORTHY | 30.17 | RENTAL DISPUTE | (Superior Product-Brazilian Ditch, Aug 17) |
| 28.93 | BALLYMAC INSPEED | (Definate Opinion-Ballymac Razl, May 18) | |
| GALWAY | 28.91 | ROSSHILL CHARLIE | (Kinloch Brae-Leamaneigh Lisa, Feb 18) |
| KILKENNY | 29.13 | BULL RUN BULLET | (Ballymac Eske-Tullowmac Java, Mar 16) |
| LIMERICK | 29.61 | LENSON AUSTIN | (Good News-Coolavanny Kelly, Feb 18) |
| LONGFORD | 29.38 | REVILO QUEEN | (Paradise Madison-Avas Castle, May 16) |
| MULLINGAR | 21.94 | CRONODY TADHG | (Zero Ten-Cronody Sophie, Aug 16) |
| NEWBRIDGE | 28.76 | WELLTIMER | (Greenwell Hulk-Wisdom, Jul 16) |
| SHELBOURNE PARK | 28.20 | MUSTANG FIRMINO | (Ballymac Eske-Mustang Vienna, Jan 18) |
| 31.07 | MACAROON CRUZ | (Superior Product-Skyline Amber, Mar 16) | |
| THURLES PARK | 29.39 | GROUP BOUZOUKI | (Ruthless Man-Calling Spice, Aug 17) |
| TRALEE | 28.67 | KILLERISK FIVE | (Droopys Jet-Honeypot Lane, Jan 18) |
| WATERFORD | 28.68 | SUIRVIEW KEA | (Droopys Cain-Nans Lucky, Jun 17) |
| YOUGHAL | 29.00 | BEATBYTHEBORO | (Ballybough Mike-Kerryroad Baba, Oct 16) |
