Champion trainer jets off to a flying start for O'Leary's Gigginstown team

Last Saturday's Kirkistown fixture saw a result that is almost certainly a taste of things to come, a first success for the combination of Colin Bowe and Gigginstown.

The new association between the champion trainer and the O'Leary team came about in a reshuffle announced last summer after the retirement of Eddie Hales. With Gordon Elliott no longer training pointers for Gigginstown, Colin and northern-based Brian Hamilton are now involved along with Mouse Morris and Pat Doyle.

Point-to-points have played an important part for Gigginstown since the early days. Tuco, the David Wachman-trained gelding who could be said to have started it all for Michael O'Leary by winning the Goffs Land Rover Bumper at Fairyhouse in 2001, had run previously won at Tallow. The owner's first Grade 1 winner, War Of Attrition, was first seen in public at Horse And Jockey, though he fell that day.