September 2024

We were pleased to get September off to a winning start at Clonmel when Golden Circet became our eighth maiden winner of the season so far, coming home well to win under Billy. For a horse who hasn’t been gelded, he’s as gentle a type as you’ll ever meet and I was delighted to see him get his turn.

It’s possible the combination of more testing ground and a step up in distance counted against him on his next start at Down Royal - maybe mostly the mile-and-a-five-furlong trip. I’d imagine we could drop him back to a mile for his next start in October.

5 9 24 Golden Circet Clonmel

Golden Circet in Clonmel, our eighth maiden winner of the season

Keilah tries her heart out and was a very deserving winner when getting off the mark at Punchestown under Nathan. I thought it was a lovely performance from her to win as she did, and she was probably a shade unlucky not to win twice in the same week when beaten a neck at Navan under the 7lb penalty. Fingers crossed she might be able to win another one for Rory O'Toole before the season is out.

It was a shame to see Great Mover just get collared when second in a Naas nursery that same week because she ran a fine race in defeat. She’s an honest type for the Probity Racing Syndicate. We’ll look towards something similar for her at Bellewstown next month.

17 9 24 Keilah Punchestown

A very deserving win by Keilah at Punchestown

Liltia ran well in her two maiden starts at Navan this month; third over a mile before improving when getting back up to 10 furlongs and finishing second a fortnight later. She’s a genuine type of filly for Clodagh Mitchell and will line up in another maiden next month.

Renzo Forni’s Lunigiana has never finished out of the first three in her life and reached the frame again in a six-furlong maiden at Naas this month. I have a feeling that a level surface might be what she really wants, so we’ll head to Dundalk for a sprint maiden next. Hopefully that might be a good fit for her.

Positive Energy didn’t get the rub of the green when finishing third at Galway over an extended mile. There’s a handicap coming up over 10 furlongs that we’ll run him in at Navan, and fingers crossed he might be able to go a couple of places better there.

There was a step in the right direction from Lagoon Nebula when sticking to the task well enough for third in a maiden at the Listowel Harvest Festival. There’s a handicap coming up for her at Thurles next month that could be an option. She’s an honest filly.

It looked like Sweet Verona appreciated the switch to handicap company for the first time at Clonmel when beaten a length in third. I think she probably needs a mile and a quarter to see the best of her.

Fairy Wings looks to be finding her feet in handicaps too, finishing fourth in the same race as Sweet Verona at Clonmel. She then did some good late work to be third at Listowel over a mile and a half. There mightn’t be many options left for her as the turf season draws to a close but we’ll try our best to get one out of her before the autumn wraps up.

All in all, I think our horses have been running well and trying hard. We came away with a couple of winners this past month and 20 of our 32 runners (63%) finished in the prize money. They’ve generally been consistent in what everyone knows is very competitive racing.