Gilligan storms Ballybrit

Date Published: 09-Aug-2007

PAUL Gilligan really stepped out of the training shadows at his home track of Ballybrit last week — the Craughwell based handler recording a magnificent haul of three winners and three seconds from a festival team of only four horses.

Only the master of Ballybrit himself, Dermot Weld, saddled more winners than Gilligan over the seven day marathon meeting as local bookmakers were left counting the cost of a Galway trainer taking the country’s most popular festival by storm.

Gilligan was the headline story of this summer’s Galway Races and to those of us who have been following the stable’s fortunes over the past few months, his strike rate at Ballybrit comes as no major surprise, even if he had to first endure the frustration of saddling three runners up before striking gold.

But those second place finishes of Nintytwo Team, Tai Lass and Jadanli earlier in the week had only confirmed the yard’s current rude health as Gilligan eventually got his just rewards in an unforgettable closing 24 hours to the festival.

It was Nintytwo Team, owned by the Kiltormer based Hurl ‘N’ Ball Syndicate headed by former double Galway All-Ireland senior medal winner, Tony Kilkenny, which…..