Red-hot Hogan steals the show with second double in a week

Thursday: Thurles

Denis Hogan looks unlikely to be represented at next week's Cheltenham Festival which is a pity as few Irish trainers are in better form at the moment.

The Cloughjordan handler carded his fifth winner in the last seven days, and his second double in that time, as he scored twice at the penultimate meeting of the season at Thurles.

Stable conditional Shane Mulcahy rode Hogan's first winner when partnering Mankhool to a convincing success in the 2m5f maiden hurdle.

The son of New Approach did not always convince with his jumping, indeed he almost fluffed his lines disastrously at the last with the race in safe keeping, but he had more than enough in hand to score by five lengths.

Hogan said: "He had a nice run at Gowran after a wind op so that was a big success. It wasn't the strongest race in the world, his performance at Gowran was probably better so the handicapper cannot rate it that highly. He stays well and anything up to three miles won't bother him."

He added: "That's a good winner for Shane too. He hasn't had one for a while, but he's such a hard worker and deserves every winner he gets. Hopefully it will roll on a bit for him now.

"It's a good winner too for the owners, Tony and Mike O'Brien. They've been with me since I started training and are very loyal supporters. They have four or five horses to run over the summer, so here's hoping."

Ballyadam's date with destiny

Hogan completed his double in the following 3m handicap hurdle, the feature race of the day, when partnering Ballyadam Destiny to a game success.

Twice the son of Martaline had to respond to the challenge of well-backed favourite Ernie McCracken, but twice he successfully did in prevailing by a length and a quarter.

Hogan said: "The owner Billy Horgan sent me up two horses from Terence O'Brien, including this horse. Terence thought he might benefit from a change of scenery and he did. We decided to bring him back over hurdles to get his confidence back and he rallied well for me."

Reflecting on the stable form, Hogan added: "The horses were running desperate, they just weren't right in December and January. I hope we're in a good place now and we can kick on from here. I have a good team around me and we're looking forward to the Flat season ahead."

Salamanca Bay and Mikey Fogarty on their way to a 43-length success in the 2m½f maiden hurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Fogartys team up

The Fogarty brothers, trainer Jonathan and rider Mikey, teamed up to land the 2m maiden hurdle with the Allan Stennett-owned Salamanca Bay.

The son of Saint Des Saints was one of the wider-margin winners of recent times, dominating from the front and scoring unchallenged to win by 43 lengths from Showbusiness and Kings Keeper.

"It's hard to win anything these days," said Mikey. "We won't be going to Cheltenham, but this was our Cheltenham today and hopefully we can get to one of the festivals afterwards with him."

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