Loughran steps up to plate

Roger Loughran enjoyed a much happier brush with fame yesterday after securing a marvellous winning spare ride on board Far From Trouble whose William Hill Galway Plate success turned the jockey into the toast of Ballybrit.

The JP McManus-owned horse had been the intended mount of Tony McCoy but a diabolical fall in the second race resulted in the British champion jockey sustaining a badly broken wrist and leaving open a prized big-race ride.

With less than an hour to go before the Plate start, Far From Trouble's trainer Christy Roche was scrambling for a replacement before eventually settling for Loughran, who had begun his career with him years before.

"I remember I sent him off to Dessie Hughes with a load of hay and when he came back he told me he'd got another job with Dessie," grinned Roche.

Clearly there was no bitterness at this unusual parting of the ways and the 26-year-old jockey made the most of the emergency situation to secure the most valuable success of his career with Far From Trouble beating the favourite, and Galway legend, Ansar by three-and-a-half lengths, who in turn was ahead of Dix Villez.

"It was dream run, but I'm very sorry for Tony. Christy asked me if I could do 10-four and that was it," said Loughran.

It was all a world away from last Christmas when he was at the centre of an unwelcome publicity storm after his premature celebrations on board Central House at Leopardstown lost him a valuable Grade One prize.

That mistake resulted in some big headlines, a long ban, and some painful memories which clearly still rankle as the jockey walked away from any questions on the matter yesterday.

Loughran's cool was, however, impressive when it mattered and he brought Far From Trouble with a sustained run that took him clear coming out of the dip and try as Ansar did, the hat-trick-seeking topweight couldn't peg him back.

"It was typical Ansar in Galway. He doesn't know how to quit. The rain we had at the start of the week just didn't help him," said Dermot Weld. "He did everything bar win, he got a beautiful ride and he got a bigger reception than the winner."

Far From Trouble secured JP McManus's own hat-trick as he had previously won the Plate in 2001 with Grimes and way back in 1978 with Shining Flame.

"I'm delighted with Christy who has put in a lot of work but I'm very sorry for Tony," he said.

Roche later revealed that it was McCoy who described the horse as "made for the Plate" after Far From Trouble fell in the Irish National.

"I can't tell you how confident I would have been if this was a flat race. But with a chase you can't be sure and then when Tony hit the deck I thought we were in serious trouble," he said.

However, the winner's name might have kept Roche from getting too despondent.

"When you work with National Hunt horses, you always have to make phone calls about them getting hurt or having problems. But JP's favourite saying at those times is that such things are far from trouble," he said.

McCoy fell from the McManus-owned Sporting Limerick, who was disputing the lead in the handicap hurdle when taking a fall that resulted in the horse sustaining fatal injuries. The race was won by the Charlie Swan-trained Rory's Sister.

Only for the fall, Noel Meade could have emulated Dermot Weld on Monday by training the first three winners. Earlier the veteran Moratorium carried the McManus colours to a dramatic victory in the mile-and-a-half handicap after an exceptionally cool ride from Fran Berry.

"It was a helluva ride. Coming down the hill I was saying to myself he should go but instead he kept sitting. He's that type of horse though," said Meade, who had earlier given Denis O'Regan the leg up on Ecole D'Art in the opening hurdle.

O'Regan was substituting for Paul Carberry, who injured a foot in a fall here on Tuesday and faces a number of days on the sidelines. The former champion did have a significant input into Ecole D'Art's success, however.

"This horse has only one eye and when we tried to settle him in behind, he lost his confidence. But he made all when he won last time and Paul said it helped him. He felt happier in front. Denis said he felt like a different horse again today," said Meade of the former French Listed winner.

But whatever reception Far From Trouble and Ansar got after the Plate paled in comparison with that given to Kieren Fallon, who got the favourite, Flying Knight, up the inside to win the mile handicap.

"It's great to ride a winner here," acknowledged Fallon, who later said his last winner at the course came in the late 1980s when riding for Kevin Prendergast.

The evens favourite, Tajneed, needed the full Pat Smullen treatment to just hold Phantom Lad in the seven-furlong maiden.