Life begins at 60 for happy Mortell after Three Loud Knocks delivers first win

Thursday: Clonmel

It may have been a run-of-the-mill Thursday card at Clonmel, but it might as well have been a Grade 1 day for Limerick trainer Brian Mortell, as Three Loud Knocks gave him his first winner as a trainer in the 2m7f handicap chase.

The son of Mahler produced a battling performance in the extremely testing ground under Darragh O'Keeffe to score by a diminishing neck from the strong-finishing Lacken Bridge, with favourite Enduring Love a close third.

"I'll tell you lads, life begins at 60," said the jubilant Mortell, and there cannot be many trainers to have broken their duck at such an advanced age.

He added: "I've had four point-to-point winners and that's my first on the track. I had a winner as an owner with the late Andrew McNamara but this is my first one training myself. It's a dream come true.

"I worked with Andrew for donkey's years and I spent my youth with the late Francis Flood, another marvellous man in racing. For the last 40 years I've been in the outdoor catering and restaurant business. I'm semi-retired now and doing this part-time.

"I'm loving every minute of it. That's my fifth runner since I got the licence late last year. This horse was second here one day and I was disappointed with his run at Thurles last week. I felt all week that it was worth coming here with him and Darragh was absolutely brilliant."

Hogan doubles up

Denis Hogan's string continued their steady return to form as the Cloughjordan trainer landed a double in the final two races.

Hogan partnered the James McAuley-owned topweight Wild Hunt to an emphatic victory in the 3m handicap hurdle as the brother to Breeders' Cup Turf winner Yibir went one better than when slightly unlucky in defeat at Punchestown the previous week.

Hogan said: "I thought he'd do that last time at Punchestown but the track beat him. He likes to drop in but it was very hard to do that as the race was on the inside track and was too sharp. He was bred for a lot better than that but loves that ground."

Hogan was a little more surprised after the concluding mares bumper, in which John O'Meara scored on the unraced Chautuaqua, the 14-1 shot finding plenty for pressure late on to score by seven lengths.

"We thought she'd need it," said Hogan. "She does like soft ground but that ground is really gruelling and we nearly pulled her out because she's only four and we didn't want to give her a hard race. But she had the 4yo allowance and John's claim."

He added: "She was bought by a new owner yesterday morning, Declan Sheridan from Cavan, so he's a lucky man. There are a couple of nice Listed bumpers in the spring so she'll probably go for one of them. There's a lot of improvement in her."

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