SCOIR MEAR LED home a one-two-three for JP McManus in the Baroneracing.com Leinster National at Naas.
The leading owner fielded six of the 14 runners in the €80,000 feature and was ultimately well rewarded.
The Tom Mullins-trained Scoir Mear was a 17-2 chance in the hands of 5lb claimer Simon Torrens and dug deep after the final fence to see off 7-2 favourite Ten Ten by two lengths. Fitzhenry rounded off the McManus trifecta in third.
Scoir Mear fends off Ten Ten to take the @BarOneRacing Leinster National Handicap Chase in thrilling style under @simontorrens123 for trainer Thomas Mullins 👏 pic.twitter.com/mjZvxFnkK2
— Naas Racecourse (@NaasRacecourse) March 14, 2021
Mullins, who also saddled the fifth home Chavi Artist, said of the winner: “He’s been consistent all year. He’s a horse that needs a bit of light and I said to Simon to go wide and keep him happy. He said he loved it and jumped from fence to fence.
“We’ll see what JP and Frank (Berry, owner’s racing manager) want to do – maybe he could go for the Irish National. I’m happy enough with today anyway.”
He added: “Chavi Artist was jumping so high at some of them that he couldn’t finish out. He went really high at the fourth-last and went down on his nose.
“I felt that was the end of him, but he came back into the race so he must have run a cracker.
“I’ll have to teach him to stay out of the clouds!”
Always seems to be a top quality coach and hopefully will only get better.