Jadanli prevailed in a tight finish to the Goffs Thyestes Handicap Chase yesterday to propel trainer Paul Gilligan back into the limelight. A Grade One winner in the Powers Gold Cup in 2010, Jadanli had gone nearly three years without a win, although he was third in this race 12 months ago.
Winners had been hard to come by since that Fairyhouse success for Gilligan, who tasted Cheltenham Festival glory in 2010 with Berties Dream. A loyal band of owners stuck by him and the victory of Jadanli (25 to 1) in the valuable race proved once again that given the tools Gilligan is a capable trainer.
Andrew Lynch was always travelling well on the 11-year-old and seemed to have the race won when going clear at the second last, only for Tarquinius to battle back strongly under Davy Condon and in the end the winning distance was just a head. Panther Claw ran on for third with Sole Witness fourth.
The Westener Boy and Bishopsfurze were early casualties for Tony McCoy and Ruby Walsh respectively.
Jadanli was last seen pulling up in the Welsh National and Gilligan, who trains him for his father, Eamon, said: “His run in the Welsh National was absolutely super. I think better fancied horses than him pulled up before him. He deserved a win.
“He’ll get an entry for the Irish National and I’ll aim him towards that more so than Aintree. He’ll also be entered there but the ground might be too good for him.”
Smooth success
Tony Martin’s Bog Warrior continued his impressive run of form since reverting to timber with a smooth success in the John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle.
A Grade One-winning novice chaser last season, a couple of falls in that sphere saw him lose his confidence. Wins at Fairyhouse and Punchestown had helped rebuild that, however, and Davy Russell set out to make all on the 8 to 11 favourite.
Walsh tracked him on Zaidpour but never looked like quite getting to the leader, except when Bog Warrior went left at the final flight. For a few brief moments Walsh sensed he had a chance but Bog Warrior soon got going again to win by three and a quarter lengths.
Paddy Power cut him to 10 to 1 from 12s for the World Hurdle. Martin said: “He’s a very good horse. It was his first time at three miles but I was confident enough he would get it.
“He gets any trip and has a bit of class. I wanted to get today out of the way and things are in the balance as regards Cheltenham. The lads (owners Gigginstown House Stud) have so many horses so we’ll see how things pan out.
“ The World Hurdle could maybe be a bit too good for him but the ground is also all important and I wouldn’t like to see him run on ground too fast.”
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)