RACING:AFTER COMPLETING a career clean-sweep of the Irish classics on board Jukebox Jury in the Curragh Leger at the weekend, Johnny Murtagh is setting his sights on a fifth jockeys championship in Ireland.
Murtagh holds a narrow lead over reigning champion Pat Smullen in what is turning into a classic head-to-head for the title, which this year will be decided on the final day of the turf race season at Leopardstown in early November.
“The season will end on November 6th at Leopardstown and then there will be a different championship on the all-weather at Dundalk, starting on November 7th and ending on March 23rd next year,” Horse Racing Ireland’s Jason Morris confirmed yesterday.
“But any Dundalk fixtures during this year’s turf season will count towards the jockeys championship.”
After yesterday’s Listowel action Murtagh led his big rival by three (68-65) and the world-renowned rider is “going all out” to regain a championship he last won in 2009. The jockey also scored three times in the ’90s (1995-’96-’98.)
“We will be doing everything we can to win it this year. Johnny would love to do it and he will be going all out for it,” his agent, Eddie Byrne, said yesterday. “The season ends on November 6th and he will going all out until then.”
Murtagh has enjoyed a fruitful 2011 already after his controversial split from Aidan O’Brien at the end of last year. Jukebox Jury’s thrilling dead-heat with Duncan at the weekend added to earlier classic success in June’s Epsom Oaks on board Dancing Rain. He also partnered John Oxx’s regally-bred classic hopeful Born To Sea to an exciting debut success at the Curragh on Saturday.
His momentum will be interrupted this weekend when he sits out a two-day suspension picked up at Leopardstown on Champion Stakes day. However that ban was reduced on appeal last week from the original four days.
No Irish-trained horse has ever won Newbury’s Group Two Mill Reef Stakes in the race’s near 40-year history but Aidan O’Brien could attempt to break that run this Saturday.
Crusade missed out on a clash with Born To Sea in last weekend’s Blenheim Stakes at the Curragh but he features among the 14 entries left in the Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef after yesterday’s forfeit stage, along with his stable companion Reply, who landed a lucrative sales race prize at Doncaster last week.
Among the likely home-trained runners is the York Gimcrack winner Casper Netscher.
Dermot Weld’s Sense Of Purpose was a disappointing last in the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster but post-race examinations have found an injury that will probably keep her on the sidelines for the rest of this season.
“She is lame behind in one of her top-quarters, which is a shame. She must have twisted something during the race as that definitely wasn’t her true form. When Pat (Smullen) pushed the button, she didn’t pick up at all,” said Stan Cosgrove, racing manager of the filly’s owners, the Moyglare Stud.
“I’d say it is unlikely she will run again this season, but she might stay in training next year.”
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