The first of two days of racing in Tipperary this weekend has come to a close.
The two feature races at the local track took place earlier.
The first feature, the Coolmore Churchill Stakes at 1.50 was won by the John Murphy-trained, Sweet Gardenia, ahead of Tipperary trainer, Aidan O’Brien’s ‘Ontario’ who took second, and Joseph O’Brien’s ‘Vafortino’ in third.
The second feature was the 2.25 Coolmore US Navy Flag Concorde Stakes, which has been won by the Adrian McGuinness-trained ‘Current Option’ with Tipperary jockey, Gavin Ryan on board.
‘Laughifuwant’ came in second, and ‘Soul Search’, owned by Newtown Anner Stud outside Clonmel, was in third.
The final race, The Ballykisteen Maiden, has been won by ‘Make a Promise’, with ‘Blue Umbrella’ and ‘Réaltín Fantasy’ in 2nd and 3rd.
National hunt racing will get underway at the local track tomorrow.
All the weekend’s races are still being held behind closed doors.
But speaking to Tipp FM Sport, General Manager of Tipperary Racecourse, Andrew Hogan says he doesn’t think the pandemic has affected the quality of races this year:
“Definitely the quality of racing [has not been affected]. I think we were all surprised by the number of horses that are in training and I suppose, the season has been very compact so you had nearly two race meetings every day.
“It has actually given an awful lot more chances – with more racing – to an awful lot of apprentices. They’ve won a lot more races this year.
“I think there has been a great spread of winners this year and some really exciting finishes.”
