Local trainers enjoy success

Local trainers enjoyed plenty of success over the weekend with Ger Lyons and jockey Keagan Latham recording impressive victories at Dundalk on Saturday and Leopardstown on Sunday. Lyons and Latham completed a double at Leopardstown when Love Lockdown landed the opening race and the Kiltale handler also won the final race on the card with his Dubai winner Summit Surge which won the group three Amethyst Stakes. 'Summit Surge is one of my favourite horses, a genuine group class performer when he gets good ground,' stated Lyons. Summit Surge may now go for the Ballychorus Stakes at the Foxrock track, but it will depend on the going. Lyons was also on the mark at Dundalk on Saturday where Baglioni, second on his first run at the track last month, won the opening race, the most valuable race on the card. Latham produced Baglioni to challenge inside the final furlong and, despite receiving a smack on the nose from a whip, got up by half a length. Another Meath trainer, Michael Mulvaney, who trains at Oristown outside Navan, won the apprentice handicap with The Tooth Fairy which was sent off at 4/1 favourite after opening at 7/2. Gary Carroll sent the three-year-old Statue Of Liberty colt to the front inside the final furlong for a first win after finishing second at Gowran Park last Wednesday. At Killarney on Sunday, Andrew Duff put in a good performance when getting up in the closing stages to land the bumper with the Gordon Elliott-trained Arkose ahead of Nina Carberry and Lucky William. Paul Carberry was stood down after a fall in a handicap hurdle from the Seamus Ross-owned Robin Du Bois which was put down. Noel Meade was in the winners enclosure at Downpatrick at the weekend when Failte Go Deo claimed a maiden hurdle for Nina Carberry despite a couple of horses running out at the second last hurdle when challenging the winner. Slane trainer Pat Martin was successful at Wexford on Friday with Le Leopard for Dunboyne apprentice Padraig Beggy while Kilcock handler Vincent Ward was on the mark with End Of The Affair on the flat. The horse won a hurdle at Navan last March 'We were lucky to get here, our box broke down just coming into Bunclody and we had to load our mare into Conor O"Dwyer"s box to get here,' stated the trainer Johnny Murtagh was under the microscope after the Chester meeting last week when last year"s Irish Derby winner Frozen Fire could only finish third in the three-runner Ormonde Stakes for trainer Aidan O"Brien. O"Brien recorded a one-two in the Chester Vase, but the result was not as most punters would have predicted after 25/1 chance Golden Sword made all the running under Colm O"Donoghue while Murtagh was content to sit off the pace on 13/8 favourite and runner-up Masterofthehorse. Murtagh did not make a move until two furlongs out by which time Golden Sword had kicked clear of the other runners. The favourite made rapid headway, but was still two lengths down at the line. At Lingfield on Saturday, the O"Brien-trained Age Of Aquarius was made to fight hard for victory in the totesport.com Derby Trial Stakes. The 8/11 favourite was always in the firing line for Murtagh who opted to make his own running in the five-runner field. Ballivor trainer Joanna Morgan was also on the mark at the UK track when she won a seven-furlong group three race with San Sicharia which was having its first outing for the Meath woman. Pat Smullen was on board the four-year-old which hadn"t run since finishing third at York last July for trainer Jean Claude Rouget.