A third winner on the track for amateur Mark Fahey, Byrnes’ charge proved too strong for Strident (4/1) at the business end of the two mile, six furlong contest, prompting Byrnes to comment:  “Mark got on well with here the last day at Limerick and gave her a good ride again today.  I suppose she’ll go handicapping now.”

The JP McManus-owned Salesin returned to the winners enclosure at Wexford, taking the Whitford House Hotel Amateur Race in impressive fashion.

A McManus double was completed later when 101-rated Adagjal (11/8f), ridden with supreme confidence by Nina Carberrty, recorded an effortless victory in the Raven Point Amateur Maiden Hurdle, quickening clear after the second last flight to slam Root Cause (5/1) by no less than sixteen lengths.

Adagjal is trained by Charlie Swan.

Cork Racecourse recovered from the recent floods to stage a re-arranged fixture at which Galway Mile winning jockey Chris Hayes piloted Lizzie Bennett (6/1) to a lovely win in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Handicap.

Although born and reared in Cork, Mick Fitzgerald – who has announced time on his near 20-year career – has strong south Limerick connections as his parents run a bar in Kilfinane.

The 38-year-old suffered serious neck and knee ligament damage after a fall from the JP McManus-owned L’ami in the John Smith’s Grand National in April.  He subsequently underwent two bouts of surgery to realign three vertebrae and two discs.  Fitzgerald had previously broken his neck in a fall at Market Rasen in 2005.

Fitzgerald retires with well over 1,000 winners to his credit and is one of an elite band to win both the Grand National (Rough Quest, 1996) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (See More Business, 1999).  He was also top jockey at the ’99 Cheltenham Festival with four wins, a crown he also won the following year, again with four victories.

Fitzgerald, who has already done a lot of work with At The Races (ATR), is now considering furthering his career in the media world.  “It’s something I feel comfortable with,” he said,” and it’s something I enjoy doing and I always wanted to be involved in racing.  I have done work for ATR already and it is something I want to pursue and something I want to become better at.”

He added: “I’m getting married soon, I have two lovely young sons and that’s enough to keep me occupied at the moment.”

Tralee will sadly close its gates after next week’s Rose of Tralee Festival, which opens on Tuesday.

Racing has taken place at Kilbeggan Park for more than a century (since 1898 to be precise) but the site is to be sold for development.  This year’s finale runs through until the Saturday, with the early week highlights to include the €37,000 Brandon Hotel Handicap Hurdle on the opening afternoon and the valuable Jimmy Barry Memorial Premier Handicap the following day.

All the meetings are in the afternoon and in a break with tradition, this year’s festival programme takes place before the Rose of Tralee Festival and not the week afterwards. 

More details are available at www.traleehorseracing.com.

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