'Mighty' 12-year-old Goulane Chosen defies mammoth trek to land eventful contest

A round trip of nearly 570km from trainer Seamus Spillane's Mallow base in County Cork to Sligo and the guts of eight hours in a horsebox is not for the faint-hearted, but it was an arduous journey that paid off for connections of the 12-year-old Goulane Chosen, who won his third race of 2021 by landing the feature 2m1f handicap hurdle.

It was a strange contest, with plenty of drama beforehand. A number of withdrawals, mostly due to the rain-softened ground, meant the field was already reduced from 13 to eight as they made their way to the start. It was then reduced to seven when Melly And Me got loose and did a couple of circuits on his own, and finally dropped to six when Dollar Value refused to line up.

Everything seemed to be going rosily at that stage for local trainer Mark McNiff, responsible for two of the market leaders Turkestan and Mr Moondance. And it seemed to be going rosily in the race itself as Mr Moondance had his rivals off the bridle at the second-last, but Mike O'Connor kept Goulane Chosen together and the son of Well Chosen got his second wind. Going on at the last, he saw off Mr Moondance and the even later challenge of the patiently ridden Turkestan to score by a length.

The winning trainer's son and assistant Dinny said: "He's going mighty! I was a little bit afraid of the rain coming up here, but it is not that deep and he flew through it. He's an unreal horse and a real star for a small yard like ours, and it's mighty too for his owner Mary O'Donnell, who is just a small owner-breeder."

He added: "We will see how he is in the morning, he could be entered at Killarney on Friday. The journey home will be a good bit shorter now."

Red Ball goes in

It was far from doom and gloom for Mark McNiff, as he landed the maiden hurdle with the ex-Eddie Lynam-trained Red Ball Of Fire.

The four-year-old filly by Canford Cliffs took control at the last under Phillip Enright and saw off the late challenge of market rival Loved Out.

McNiff said: "She's improving all the time. Phillip got off her the first day at Tipperary and said she would improve 20 lengths for that, and I say she improved that much from Tipperary to her last run at Roscommon and has improved as much again.

"She looked the winner everywhere I thought. She's a big strong filly and she might go to Galway now for a four-year-old hurdle. There's a chance too that she might have a spin on the Flat at Tramore."

Results, replays and analysis

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