'My foot slipped and I couldn't get it back' - lost iron nearly costs McCullagh

Is there such a thing as a bad winning ride? Niall McCullagh was able to laugh about it afterwards, but he very nearly stole defeat from the jaws of victory when he lost his iron aboard Celtic Crown inside the last furlong of the mile fillies' handicap with John Murphy's
four-year-old hanging on grimly in the finish.

All is well that ends well, though, and McCullagh revealed after the race that, in his moment of panic, he did not know what he feared most, losing the race or staring down both barrells of George Murphy, assistant to his father John Joe, in the parade ring afterwards.

McCullagh joked: "My foot just slipped at the furlong pole and I couldn't get it back in. Luckily she hung on. I was thinking to myself while it happened, 'I don't want to have to face George if this gets beat.'"

With victory in the bag, Murphy found it that bit easier to find the funny side, and said: "I actually didn't know what had happened until Niall told me he lost an iron afterwards. I wasn't sure what was happening as he was bouncing in a funny sort of a way!"

Murphy added: "We're very happy with that. We were a little bit concerned about the rain beforehand, and it got softer, but she seemed to handle it okay and stuck at it.

"She won last year on nicer ground so she's probably fairly versatile. We'll look for something similar again."

Bell Ex One scores

The spotlight was once again thrust on to the inconsistency of the Irish stewards when no alteration was made to the first division of the 1m1½f handicap won by Bell Ex One.

That's not to say the stewards did not arrive at the correct decision, because they did, as the interference the narrow runner-up Overheer suffered was minimal at a push and the best horse clearly won the race.

However, Bell Ex One did bump the runner-up pretty clearly and, for all that he didn't deserve to lose the race, it was more serious an offence than Mylestown Upper committed at Kilbeggan recently, and that horse – and all the punters who backed him – were not as lucky.

Mylestown Upper won back that maiden hurdle on appeal, but plenty said he should never have been demoted in the first place, and Bell Ex One's victory once again highlighted how unpredictable are some stewarding decisions.

Before he knew his fate, Bell Ex One's trainer Ray Cody was hopeful rather than confident that his horse would keep the race, and said of the three-year-old: "He's a lazy, leery horse and Andy [Slattery] said he was on and off the bridle – he does nothing off it.

"I can't wait to get him over a hurdle. I think that's where his future is. He could make a smashing hurdler and he's schooled already and loves it. He's basically not a Flat horse. He'll be a fun horse and hopefully he can win again off his mark."

Results, replays and analysis

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