'I think we have this day set in stone now' - Frankie Dettori hails success of Barney Curley charity day despite curtailment of card

Barney Curley and Yellow Sam put the name of Bellewstown into folklore 48 years ago, but the yellow wind and rain warning associated with Storm Agnes truncated Barney Curley Cup day on Wednesday.

At least one of the two legs of the cup managed to be run. Frankie Dettori's team built up a 31-10 point lead over the Willie Mullins team in the first leg, and it would have taken a herculean effort from team Mullins to peg back the deficit in the abandoned second leg.

Dettori's two riders Wesley Joyce and Robert Whearty filled the first two places in the mile handicap as the Willie McCreery-trained Mogwli kept on strongly inside the final furlong to pass 7-2 joint-favourite Rampage and win by three and a half lengths.

Locally-born Whearty had helped Thomas Coyle's Manhattan Dandy justify 9-2 favouritism in the preceding race before deputising for Jamie Spencer, who was unable to make it to the track to partner Rampage due to flight delays.

Winning rider Joyce said: ""Willie [McCreery] told me to drop him in and take my time on him, it was great of Willie to put me up on him. Once I got to the other horse I gave him one or two slaps and he just pulled away."

The meeting and other events surrounding were raising money for Curley's Direct Aid For Africa charity. €70,000 was raised by a golf event at the famous Baltray links on Tuesday, and the Irish National Bookmakers Association, who sponsored free entry for racegoers on the day, presented Dettori with a cheque for €5,000.

Dettori said: "I don't know how the boys did it today in those conditions. Not just the jockeys, but the staff, those leading up the horses, and everybody who came today. It was a really good effort.

"It's great to commemorate Barney's life and his charity. It's great to keep it going and to keep supporting it. We had a great day of golf yesterday and racing today. I'm glad about that, I think we have this day in the calendar set in stone now and we want to keep the tradition going."

More Joyce joy

Joyce has been one of the stories of the second half of the season since returning from more than a year on the sidelines in August, and he completed a first career double when landing what ended up being the concluding 5f handicap on the Joe Murray-trained Mickey The Steel. The son of Hot Streak kept going strongly inside the final furlong to account for Transcendental.

'He loves that ground and he was just keeping going and going," said Joyce. He did it well."

"That's 26 winners now in total and my first double. It's good to get that on the board."

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