West of Ireland owned and Galway-bred five-year-old lights up Leopardstown

IF times were different there would have been a fair amount of porter floored after a progressive five-year-old produced a ‘stout’ front-running display in powering to Grade One glory at the high-profile Leopardstown Christmas Festival on Monday.

Not alone that but the Gavin Cromwell trained Flooring Porter – owned by a West of Ireland syndicate – is now one of the leading fancies for the Stayers Hurdle at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival next March.

Rated just 95 when landing a Bellewstown maiden hurdle in August of 2019, Flooring Porter’s rapid rise through the ranks of staying hurdlers was highlighted in spectacular style at Leopardstown after leaving top-notch performers like Sire Du Berlais and Fury Road trailing in his wake in the Christmas Hurdle.

It also represented an immediate return of €60,000 in winning prizemoney for the Flooring Porter Syndicate – comprised of Kerril Creaven, father and son, Tommy and Alan Sweeney, and Edward Hogarty – who bravely forked out €10,000 to supplement their horse for the race.

That gamble was in response to pleas from Cromwell to step their horse significantly up in class after he had routed a field of 20 runners from the front in a handicap hurdle in Navan in early December.

Sent off a 22/1 chance at the Co Meath track, it was the first time Flooring Porter had tried to make every post a winning post and the horse simply thrived under the change of tactics.

Syndicate member Creaven, the former Killimordaly hurler, admitted that they had agonised over supplementing Flooring Porter for Leopardstown after he wasn’t originally entered in the €100,000 contest.

“Gavin (Cromwell) was pleading with us to let him take his chance. He was saying the horse was fit and in great form, that he would finish in the first three and that we would at least get our money back. It was a huge decision, but we went for it.”

Bred by Sean Murphy of the Ryehill Stud in Monivea, Flooring Porter justified his connections’ faith in him by putting a high-quality field to the sword under jockey Jonathan Moore, who was riding his first ever Grade One winner.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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