Alex Harvey guides home double at Tramore to keep him in hunt for conditional jockeys' title

Alex Harvey partnered a 25-1 double to keep him in the hunt for the conditional jockeys' championship, with the 5lb claimer seen to excellent effect on two gutsy winners in Long Gone and Clarens.

In the opening 2m½f mares' maiden hurdle Long Gone took full advantage of the 1-2 favourite Qualimita and Russellsbelle falling two out to land the most valuable race on the card. The Declan Queally-trained seven-year-old, who landed a Limerick bumper last year, got the job done in determined fashion, finding plenty after the last to hold off Sea Of Doubt by a length.

Queally was happy with the display and was keen to stress the trip would be on the sharp side for the Getaway mare.

"I probably took a bit of a risk running her back over this trip," he said. "But it was a €15,000 race and you've the bonus too, so Gilmer [Bates, owner] said to take a chance. 

"We'll look to step up in trip now for a novice. Gilmer and his dad John are good supporters of us. Ideally, she'd want two miles four or five. She showed a good attitude and stayed, she was flat out the whole way."

The second leg of Harvey's double came in the 1m7½f novice chase when 5-1 outsider of the field Clarens made virtually all for Harvey and local trainer John Flavin.

The eight-year-old improved plenty from his chase debut at Wexford this month and had to dig deep after a chancy leap at the second-last. Although eventual runner-up Enjoy The Dream jumped the last with a slender lead, the winner fought back valiantly to get back up by half a length in a tight race in which two lengths covered the four runners at the finish.

Earlier, John Shinnick boosted his own title claims when guiding the Lorna Fowler-trained Fairyland Opera to an easy 12-length victory in the 2m5½f maiden hurdle.

The victory took Shinnick to 27 winners for the season, one behind leader Tiernan Power Roche, with Cian Quirke and Harvey joint-third on 23.

Rochestown enjoys seaside again

The seaside air at Tramore brought out the best in the Brendan Walsh-trained Rochestown once again and he made it four wins from seven visits to the track when getting up late to land the 2m5½f handicap chase under Philip Enright.

This was his third win over fences at the Waterford venue, having landed two handicap chases last year prior to taking advantage of a lower mark over hurdles in January. The ten-year-old had to show plenty of resolution to get past General Clermont after getting in tight to the last but Enright galvanised him to a gritty neck success to score at 13-2.

Walsh said: "He loves it here. The last day he ran, our horses had a little cloud over them. We knew he was in form today and we'll find something for him here in May if there's some rain. It's Philip's first winner for me so that was nice."

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