RACING:CLASSIC WINNERS Johnny Murtagh and Colm O'Donoghue are set to try and conquer new ground in Istanbul tomorrow when the Irish jockeys ride in Turkey for the first time.
Murtagh and O’Donoghue are among a five-strong European team that will take on a local Turkish team in a four-race series at the Veliefendi track in Istanbul.
The top French rider Olivier Peslier is also in the visiting team, as is the Panamanian-born German champion Eduardo Pedroza and another Irishman, Neil Callan, who has enjoyed lucrative success in Turkey already, on board the Group One winner Pressing.
It will be a new experience, though, for Murtagh and 30-year-old O’Donoghue who enjoyed the second Classic victory of his career last month when Treasure Beach won the Irish Derby. He has also tasted Classic success in France on board Astronomer Royal in the French Guineas.
Two races will take place on turf and another two on Polytrack in a series that was won by Christophe Lemaire in 2009 and the French champion Ioritz Mendizabal last year. The valuable International meeting at Veliefendi takes place in early September.
Murtagh is in action at Killarney this evening where he will be hoping to score on board John Oxx’s Shiramiyna in the opening fillies maiden. This one failed to cope with Teofilo’s sister, Teo’s Sister, at Leopardstown last week but time could show she was attempting a stiff task.
Murtagh is also on the topweight Hangar Five in the 11-furlong handicap and could reverse Limerick form with Goldplated on 9lb better terms while Tornedo Shay looks to be in the sort of form where he can concede weight in the amateur race.
Northern Rocked takes on a quartet of three year olds in the conditions race and the first-time blinkered Giant Step could prove too hard a nut to crack for the older runner.
The Killarney feature is the €17,500 novice chase and this looks a good opportunity for Paul Carberry’s mount, Casey Top, on the evidence of a winning start over fences at Kilbeggan.
Overturn will have to carry 11-10 in valuable Galway Hurdle
DONALD McCAIN’S hugely versatile star Overturn will have to cope with a career high rating if he is to win back-to-back renewals of the Guinness Galway Hurdle later this month, writes Brian O’Connor.
Overturn has been given a rating of 159 by the Irish handicapper, Noel O’Brien, ahead of the €260,000 Ballybrit highlight and will have to carry 11-10 in the most valuable prize of the Galway Festival.
O’Brien unveiled weights for the big hurdle and the €200,000 Tote.com Galway Plate yesterday, with the former Cheltenham hero, Captain Cee Bee, made topweight for the most valuable chase of the summer.
However, Captain Cee is among a number of star names with entries in both big races. Eddie Harty’s runner has 11-10 in the Plate but 10-11 in the Hurdle.
The 2009 Galway Hurdle winner, Bahrain Storm, is another with Plate and Hurdle entries and Pat Flynn’s charge, runner-up to Overturn last year, could be part of a familiar look to the day four highlight as Dirar, third last year, is also entered again for the Guinness-sponsored race.
Last year’s Plate winner, Finger Onthe Pulse, has 10-8 for this month’s race, a rise of 9lb in O’Brien’s ratings, the same as last year’s third Majestic Concorde who is on 11st. Dermot Weld’s runner has enjoyed big race success in the interim with a victory in last Christmas’s Paddy Power Chase.
