'He lives life on the road' - Denis Hogan hails gallant Yuften after Dundalk joy

They say good things come in threes but in the case of Friday night's Dundalk winner Yuften, eight is the magic number.

Eight different trainers in all, eight wins in Ireland in the last 13 months and on eight occasions this year the eight-year-old was available to be claimed for €15,000.

Friday's commanding handicap success at Dundalk crowned a remarkable six months for the admirable stalwart, who has moved from John Feane to Ado McGuinness to current trainer Denis Hogan to Noel Kelly and then back to Hogan during that period – all through a series of claiming races.

"He lives life on the road," said Hogan. "He's gone back to his owners after Friday night's win – he won't know what's going on this morning!"

Yuften's latest success at Ireland's sole all-weather venue was his first outside of claiming company since landing the 2016 Balmoral Handicap at Ascot for Roger Charlton, much to the delight of his current connections.

"This year has been brilliant for him and he's a massive advertisement for the claiming system in Ireland," said Hogan.

"A lot of the pundits, and myself to a certain extent, thought he would be a horse to do his winning in claiming company, so to see him winning a handicap like on Friday evening is the icing on the cake."

Hogan has been a very active presence in Irish claimers this year alongside Yuften's current owner James McAuley, who has enjoyed a fruitful campaign at Dundalk.

"A huge amount of the credit has to go to James and Stephen McAuley, they're claiming horses all year and aren't afraid to put their money down," said Hogan. "They don't approach anything half-heartedly and have earned their luck."

Happy days: connections of Yuften enjoy Friday's winCredit: Patrick McCann

Of Ireland's growing claiming system, he added: "They're a fantastic initiative and I think if the claiming price in some of the races increased it would attract an even higher calibre of horse.

"Small owners can buy into a horse that's ready to run – it gets people involved. HRI have been good in putting these races on but I think a greater amount of claimers over jumps could work very well – they give badly handicapped horses an opportunity to be competitive."

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