Gilligan and O’Connor in top form as local trainer Murphy comes off cold list

TWO Galway jockeys at opposite ends of the experience spectrum have both been on the mark twice in a productive period for local owners as well.

Craughwell’s Liam Gilligan teamed up with Curragh trainer Padraig Roche to ride two winners in three days last week. The pair were on the mark in Fairyhouse where they landed the Book Winter Tickets Festival Handicap Hurdle with Demi Pile, the 13/2 chance scoring with the minimum of fuss.

Young Gilligan, son of trainer Paul, had to work much harder, however, in Thurles later in the week when the well-backed 6/4 favourite Bay Hill was all out under the promising 7lbs claimer to win the 2m handicap hurdle on the card. Gilligan rode five winners last season and this was his fourth success of the current campaign

Top amateur rider Derek O’Connor also made it to the winners’ enclosure in Thurles where he won the bumper on the Joseph O’Brien-trained Silk And Sand, which was a promising third on its debut in Fairyhouse last month.

The Beagh man, a record-breaker on the Point-to-Point scene, was back at the Tipperary track on Monday last for a re-arranged fixture and he again delivered in the bumper, this time  for Galway connections.

Pakens Rock, owned by former St Thomas’ hurler Ray Healy and trained in Clainbridge by Barry Murphy, made all under O’Connor at odds of 4/1. It was Murphy’s first track triumph since Kentucky Lass obliged in Roscommon in the summer of 2016.

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

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