Craughwell trainer lands the biggest pot of his career at Dublin Festival

GALWAY trainer Paul Gilligan could be on his way back to the Cheltenham National Hunt festival with a live contender ten years after springing a major shock in the Cotswolds with Berties Dream in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle.

That 33/1 success propelled the Craughwell-based handler into the sporting headlines and Gilligan is now targeting a return to the upcoming big Cheltenham meeting with a seven-year-old which won its first race on Sunday.

But it wasn’t any old race or any old meeting . . . instead, it was the €150,000 Gaelic Plant Hire Handicap Chase at the prestigious weekend Dublin Festival.

And Gilligan plundered the first prize of €88,500 – the biggest pot of the trainer’s career – with another 33/1 outsider as Glamorgan Duke rallied under Conor Maxwell to get his head back in front of the Henry de Bromhead trained Trainwreck.

Always in the firing line, Glamorgan Duke finally reaped the reward of his consistency over the larger obstacles – he hadn’t finished worse than fifth in his previous seven runs – by saying on stoutly up the hill after the last fence was omitted.

It represented a first ever win at Leopardstown for Gilligan, but there was no mad celebration in Cawley’s in Craughwell on Sunday night, the winning trainer content with a couple of bottles of Lucozade as he savoured his return to the racing big time.

“It was a special moment. The horse was idling in front, but showed battling qualities when Trainwreck went past. You never go to a big track or a big meeting like Leopardstown expecting to win, but he was working well at home and I thought he might finish in the first three.”

Carrying the colours of his wife Natalie, Glamorgan Duke is normally ridden by Gilligan’s eldest son, Liam, but he wasn’t able to do the light weight of 9st-11lbs.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.