Dorans Weir has Hourigan thinking big once more

Dorans Weir is heading to the Dublin Racing Festival after her gallant run in defeat at Leopardstown last week.

The six-year-old has run three times to date, finishing fifth on her debut over hurdles at Thurles in November before returning to the same track the following month to claim a three-and-a-quarter-length success in a bumper.

At Leopardstown the mare was pitched against geldings for the first time and was beaten by just three-quarters of a length when second to Willie Mullins’ The Nice Guy.

Another Leopardstown run is now on the agenda in the Grade Two mares’ bumper on February 6.

“She’ll go to the Dublin Racing Festival for the mares’ bumper next,” said Hourigan.

“She was a shade unlucky the last day but that’s racing.

“That’s the plan with her at the moment anyhow, to go to back to Leopardstown.

“The Dublin Festival will tell us an awful lot about her, she has improved from her win to the other day and she was just a shade unlucky to be beaten, but that’s race riding.”

Dorans Weir runs in the same Tom Doran silks as Dorans Pride, a hugely popular horse trained by Hourigan to 29 victories including the Cheltenham Festival Stayers’ Hurdle, the Hattons Grace, the Kerry National and four successive Clonmel Oil Chases.

“They don’t come along very often, Dorans Prides don’t,” the trainer said of one of his all-time stable stars.