Smiling Eliza and Scealai Aonair at Fairyhouse

Summer Friday night racing was back at Fairyhouse. I was seriously tempted to go to this as Eliza and Scealai are our 2 best horses and this was a great chance to get on the winners rostrum. Seems like a lot of the club members had the same idea as there were lots of requests for tickets. As it was, I didn't make it down and it didn't look a bad decision in the end. Eliza was up first in the second last race of the night, a 1m 4f flat race with a step up in grade following her win the last day. She was carrying bottom weight but with top flat jockey Wayne Lordan on board, she was still fancied for at least a place by the Sporting Life. She was ridden prominently throughout and looked like she was in with a chance of getting something out of the race but dropped back from 3rd to 5th in the final furlong then kicked on again to come back and take 4th.

Scealai featured in the final race of the night also over 1m 4f but she had to contend with an 8lb hike in the weights though she was also being talked about for a place. She had a good position along the rails after the jockey, Declan McDonogh who has won on her previously, settled her down after she was pulling quite hard to begin with. She stayed on the rail the whole way around and looked to be in a good position but needed to move swiftly through the horse on her left and the 4 in front of her. Just when it looked like the gap was there for her the rest of the field suddenly appeared alongside her and there was no way out. She dropped back to finish near the back.

Both horses were reported fine afterwards. Scealai maybe needs the ground a bit softer. Eliza is looking our best horse at the minute.