'He has a great appetite for racing' - prolific Easy Game lands the spoils for second season running

Easy Game made it an incredible 13th win over fences from 25 attempts as he landed the John J Galvin Chase for the second successive year for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend. 

The champion jockey settled the 5-6 shot in third throughout the 2m3f contest before an extravagant leap four out took the pair to the front. The Henry de Bromhead-trained Dancing On My Own looked a big danger coming to two out but a mistake there allowed Easy Game to take command before he sealed the deal with a bold jump at the final fence.

Victory brought up a four-timer for the nine-year-old, who was also scoring for the eighth time in nine starts, and Townend was effusive in his praise for his partner.

"He’s brilliant, isn’t he?" he said. "They’ve done a great job placing him and he has a great appetite for racing. He loves that ground, and credit to them, it’s 25 degrees here and the ground is still safe. They’ve done a lot of work on it."

He added: “It was tight enough on ratings. We jumped into the race probably sooner than I wanted to, but I wasn’t disappointing him at that stage, and once he got on top all I had to do was keep him up to his work.

“He doesn’t need a lot of encouragement but you can trust him with your life now – it was a different story when he was a novice. He’s a great spin, and a joy to have anything to do with."

In-form mare

Danny Gilligan continued his fine start to the season when partnering the Gordon Elliott-trained Glan to victory in the 2m handicap hurdle.

The eight-year-old shaped as if she was ready to win when an encouraging fifth at Killarney last month and, after travelling powerfully, she hit the front after two out before scooting away from runner-up Grange Walk in the style of a mare in rude health.

The JP McManus-owned Glan was fourth in last season's Galway Hurdle and would certainly have her supporters were she to line up in that race again at Ballybrit later this summer.

Gilligan, who is operating at a 25 per cent strike-rate when teaming up with Elliott this season, was full of praise for the winner.

He said: "She settled lovely and jumped brilliant. She's done everything I asked of her and was good and gutsy. She can be a bit keen sometimes but was very good there and hopefully she can keep progressing."

Call collects

Call Her Now ran out an impressive winner of the 2m mares' maiden hurdle for trainer Lorna Fowler, rewarding connections for their patience when making a winning return from exactly a year off the track.

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