A BRILLIANT HOLIDAY IN KILKENNY

Ian Fortune

Another Holiday finished off his unbeaten run through the Champion Open Unraced Stake at a packed Kilkenny on Sunday evening.

A huge crowd was on hand to witness the son of Dorotas Wildcat and Vigorous Lindsey claim a fourth win on the bounce as he saw off a gallant Deadly Crusader to claim the €10,000 winner’s purse.

An 11-10 favourite ahead of the off, the Michael O’Donovan trained star was forced to work harder for this success than his previous three. Although well into stride, he soon took a bump from the rails seeking Bogger Bible.

As this was happening, Deadly Crusader was hitting top stride from trap five and he led the field into the corner. Jack Roche’s Another Holiday quickly recovered, however to race a close second and this would eventually prove decisive.

Deadly Crusader ran a tremendous first and second bend to lead his rival by a length into the back straight but Another Holiday was always perfectly poised on the inside of the track. Droopys Gravy, after forcing his way into third on the bend continued to give chase down the back straight.

As they hit halfway, Another Holiday began to close on the leader before making his move on the fence at the third turn. Going to the front as they hit the final bend, Another Holiday held off the rallying Deadly Crusader to emerge a deserving winner by three parts of a length in 29.00.

After finding bad traffic at the third turn, Droopys Gravy did well to recover to take third spot, finishing some five and a half lengths behind the runner-up. Another Holiday may not have gone as fast as he did in the quarter and semi-finals but he did show enough to suggest he has a big future. Jack Roche and Michael O’Donovan can now start to plot their next move with the hugely exciting winner.

We look forward to seeing where he will turn up next, while it’s also worth keeping an eye on those in behind. The potential of all six finalists is there for all to see.