'It was an incredible day' - Liam McKenna revels in his Galway Hurdle heroics

The Galway festival is never short of producing a fairytale and Liam McKenna's remarkable comeback success on Tudor City in the Galway Hurdle is right up there with the best of them.

The County Tyrone native had been out of action since breaking his collarbone in the Irish Grand National in April, but he seized the opportunity handed to him by trainer Tony Martin to land the biggest prize of his career on his first ride of the season.

The 27-year-old has just 22 winners to his name across a ten-year career, but the 7lb claimer will hope for more opportunities after landing Europe's richest handicap hurdle in tremendous style.

He said: "It still hasn't sunk in completely just yet, but it was an incredible day. It's one of the biggest races of the year, never mind the summer.

"When I heard I'd be off for three months, I thought if I could get back for the Sunday of Galway, it would be great. I was never thinking it would be Thursday, let alone riding the winner of the Galway Hurdle."

Liam McKenna punches the air after landing the Galway Hurdle on Tudor CityCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

McKenna was cleared to ride only last week by the IHRB, but he knew there was a plan in place when Martin asked him to be ready in time for Galway and was extremely grateful for the trainer putting his faith in him.

He said: "Tony asked me to get cleared a week before Galway, so I thought something would be coming up.

"I could have given you 100 things of what I thought it was, and winning the hurdle on Tudor City certainly wouldn't have been one of them.

"To put a conditional up in that race is a big thing but to put up a conditional coming back from three months off is even bigger. He must have had a lot of faith to make that decision and I'm very grateful for it."

Tudor City was having his fourth crack at the Galway Hurdle, becoming the first ten-year-old to win the race since 1947 and the first dual winner since Pinch Hitter in 1983, and McKenna was full of praise for him.

"He definitely knew where he was going," he said. "He was a horse who knew exactly where he was at every stage of the race. He knew where to pull himself up and when to kick on, and knew where the line was as well.

"He never really travelled, but he knows the place so well. He kept finding all the way. When I could feel him picking up just after the last, that's the only time I knew it would take a fair horse to get by him."

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