Special branch made for an evening of high drama at Clonmel Races

Fethard native Ben Coen hasn’t looked back since joining the Johnny Murtagh yard as his stable jockey and he took the riding honours on a rather dramatic evening at Clonmel last Thursday with a double through En Or, in the featured Camida Advantage Tipperary Cup Handicap, and the comfortable victory of the well-touted 5/2 favourite Bizarre Dreams for his boss in the Suir Blueway Handicap.

Cathy O’Leary trains four-time flat winner En Or for John and Helen Hartnett, who are originally from Limerick but have been domiciled in California for the last 25 years.

Helen explained, “We invest in small technology companies in agriculture and the like and we flew in from San Francisco two days ago”.

The easy-to-back 8/1 chance came from last to first to land the prize and looked to have plenty to do a furlong and a half down but his rider soon got after him and the partnership had two and a half lengths to spare over Jabbar at the line.

Said Coen, “Cathy didn’t think he was a certainty to get the two mile trip but she was hopeful of a good run and I got luck when I needed it”.

The real drama of the evening came just as the horses were coming into the parade ring for the fifth race, the St Patrick’s Well Handicap, when a large tree suddenly came crashing down and came to rest on the privet hedge surrounding the ring. Clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer and members of the ground staff reacted quickly to the situation and the area was soon taped off, with the runners being mounted in the pre-parade ring nearby.

Above: The Camida Advantage Tipperary Cup at last week’s meeting at Clonmel Races was won by the Cathy O’Leary-trained En Or. Owners John and Helen Hartnett and jockey Ben Coen were presented with the Tipperary Cup and other prizes by Louise Slattery, Caitriona Campbell and Edel O'Gorman from Camida

Representatives from the Tipperary Cup sponsor Camida made an impromptu trophy presentation to En Or’s connections in the pre-parade ring. Local company Camida, whose eyecatching blue-coloured head offices are situated on New Quay in Clonmel, first sponsored at Powerstown in May 2018 and they put their backing to two more races last Thursday.

Camida is an international company with about 350 customers and 350 suppliers in 35 countries and they supply speciality raw materials to the life science and other industries, striving to serve their customers and suppliers by adding value, rather than commercial success.

Above: Ciara Lenihan and Harriet Treadwell from Camida made a presentation to the members of the Corner House Syndicate following the success of the Denis Hogan-trained Expound in the Comida To Come Handicap. Also included is winning jockey Joey Sheridan

Step forward marketing specialist Clodagh Moriarty from Dungarvan and Noelle Dunne who, between them, organised a relaxed social gathering of 30 Camida employees up in the Club Stand at Clonmel. Clodagh was paying her first visit to Powerstown and her enthusiasm shone through.

“It’s more a social occasion than anything else and such an enjoyable event. It’s such a beautiful setting, very efficiently organised and lovely for a team day out, where we’re all together outside the office”.

Racing takes place again at Clonmel on Thursday October 3 when the main race will be the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Captain Christy Novice Chase.