Hawthorne excels at Tipperary
Hawthorne made a very pleasing introduction when taking the Mocklershill Stables Maiden at Tipperary.
With all the major yards represented in the race, Michael Hickey’s Footstepsinthesand colt was sent off an unconsidered 20-1 chance.
Despite his chunky odds, he showed his rivals a clean pair of hooves to give the fledgling handler a first winner on the level.
Shane Gorey kept his mount up to his work inside the final furlong, and he came home two lengths clear of 6-4 favourite Capulet Monteque.
“My son, Paul, bought this horse as a breeze-up sale horse, but he was left over after the Craven Sale in Newmarket,” said Hickey.
“Paul spent three years with Aidan O’Brien and most of the credit for this win should go to him.
“This is our first runner on the Flat, we’ve had a couple of National Hunt runners before.
“He was going very nicely at home but it was very hard to judge what we had.”
Santo Padre provided David Marnane and Colm O'Donoghue with victory in the West Tipperary Mental Health Association Handicap.
Sent on over a furlong out, it proved a race-winning move by O’Donoghue as Just For Mary came with a rare rattle late on down the outside.
Unfortunately for his backers, the runner-up got going all too late as Santo Padre (6-1) held on for a neck call.
Perfect Polly won a thrilling renewal of the Abergwaun Stakes under a fine ride from Fran Berry.
Sent off the 2-1 second favourite, Berry got a fine tune out of the Efisio filly to deny Snaefell, the 7-4 market leader, by a neck.
James Ryan’s filly used to be trained in England by Jeremy Noseda and had already won at Listed level at Haydock.
Viscount Nelson continued his education with victory in the Listed Coolmore Hurricane Run Stakes.
Beautifully bred by Giant’s Causeway and out of Oaks winner Imagine, Aidan O’Brien’s colt made slightly heavy weather of landing cramped odds as the 1-2 favourite.
Johnny Murtagh was given a lead into the straight by Bobbyscot and while Viscount Nelson did not pick up immediately for pressure, a few taps with the persuader made him go about his job in a professional manner.
He eventually went away at the finish to record a half-length success from the long-time leader.
William Hill cut the winner into 20-1 from 25s for next year’s 2000 Guineas, and introduced him into their Derby betting at 25-1.
