Crossgar trainer Colin MCBratney gets a winner at Down Royal
Racing on St Patrick’s day at Down Royal produced a shock local 66/1 winner in the opening race.
The Colin McBratney-trained Billable Grant kept on well on the downhill run prior to the penultimate flight, however, claiming jockey Gavin Brouder waited until after the last before delivering a decisive challenge just as the locally owned Imperial Ruler appeared the likely winner.
In an all local finish the third (Breagagh) and fourth (Arlo) are locally trained. Crossgar based trainer McBratney said of the winner owned by local television presenter Pamela Ballantine: “Then we ran him in the Punchestown bumper and he ran okay, and for a backward horse he ran nicely here the last day.
“He got a bit of a break over Christmas and came back and won a schooling hurdle about two and a half weeks ago.
“I said to Gavin (Brouder) to get him into a rhythm. It was a pleasant surprise as I didn’t think he would be good enough to win that today.
“I think he’ll go on any ground. He has a nice bit of pace and jumps and stays. He might be a horse for Perth and we’ll keep him in a low grade if we can and see where we go.”
