Athenry native lands big Leopardstown pot with Drop The Anchor
PAT Fahy is a self-confessed pessimist and he saw a couple of reasons to be suitably downbeat ahead of the €125,000 Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle at Leopardstown on Saturday.
It was the first day of the prestigious Dublin Racing festival and champion trainer Willie Mullins had already won three of the opening five races on the card – a sign of things to come.
Fahy, a native of Athenry, may have been saddling one of the leading fancies for the ferociously competitive 2-mile handicap, but darker thoughts stalked his pre-race mood.
Apart from a maximum field of 22 runners, Fahy struggled to imagine 5lb claimer Simon Torrens riding a second winner on the same afternoon after he had steered another JP McManus owned runner, A Wave Of The Sea, to victory in the Matherson Handicap Chase.
“I was looking at a full parade ring beforehand thinking to myself 'imagine being the best horse in this with all the big names', said Fahy.
“I also arrived here not long before Simon won earlier and I said 'well that's probably me gone now because he'll never win two of them'.”
Fahy’s negative pre-race perspective admittedly appeared to have some basis when Drop The Anchor made a mistake at the fourth last and had to be bustled along for a few strides.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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