Jadanli ensures GilliganÕs great run continues

Date Published: {J}

John McIntyre

IN the space of 16 days, Paul Gilligan has graduated into the National Hunt big time. The Craughwell based trainer is now an instantly recognisable figure in the sport after the exploits of Berties Dream and Jadanli in Grade One races at the Cheltenham and Fairyhouse festivals respectively.

Berties Dream set the ball rolling when emerging a shock 33/1 winner of the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at the most prestigious festival of all last month and Gilligan’s expanding string underlined their current well being by Jadanli pulling off another big race upset at Fairyhouse on Sunday.

The Powers Gold Cup is one of the premier Grade One events on the Irish National Hunt calendar and Jadanli, owned by Gilligan’s father Eamonn, and named after the trainer’s three sons, Jack, Danny and Liam, was one of the outsiders for the prestigious €100,000 pot.

Sent off at 25/1 despite being successful on his previous outing at Navan, Jadanli and Andrew Lynch were soon someway behind as Let Yourself Go set a punishing gallop on the really heavy ground. Barry Geraghty was taking no prisoners up front, but it proved a poorly judged ride as his mount was legless by the home straight and had to be pulled up.

The always prominent and smooth-travelling Zaarito took up the running around the home turn and though Jadanli was relentlessly cutting into the deficit, opinion was divided over what the outcome would have been had Colm Murphy’s luckless charge not come to grief at the third last.

Zaarito’s jockey Davy Condon felt his mount had still plenty left in the tank, but the manner in which Jadanli stayed on suggests the Galway horse would have taken all the beating. In the end, only three – including the remounted Shakervilz – of the ten-runner field completed.

Jadanli had 23 lengths to spare over Done Deal at the line and will now be aimed at the staying novice chase at the Punchestown festival in a fortnight’s time, with the long term target being next year’s Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse.

Gilligan was nearly more jubilant over Jandali’s victory last Sunday than Berties Dream’s achievement in Cheltenham and it’s easy to understand why. Apart from being a family horse, he has painstakingly nursed the eight-year-old back to full health after being sidelined for two seasons with a tendon injury.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.