Paul Carberry guides Monksland to a victory in Woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle
Monksland showed class in the Woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle (Grade 2) at Leopardstown in Ireland on Friday, December 28, 2012.
Despite not being rated as the favourite to succeed, he displayed an excellent technique and caused an upset in the all important event, beating Zaidpour, who was priced 11 to 8 by the bookmakers.
There was a lot of pressure on Monksland, as he had to weather the storm from some of the most consistent runners at present. He was a touch nervous, but did not let his fans down at the end of the day.
Although, his start was not a good one, he managed to come back strongly in the 3 mile long race. He was held back for quite some time before he started pressing hard. Once he took the lead, no one was able to come closer to him and he finished on top of the table with a clear margin of two and a half lengths.
There had been a lot of rain at Leopardstown, so the ground was soft. Therefore, it was not easy for anyone to come out with all guns blazing. However, the Mrs Patricia Hunt’s owned runner gave his best shot and earned a cash prize of £21,666.67 in the end.
His trainer, Noel Meade, was delighted with the outcome of the race, but admitted that things were not easy for his challenger. He praised the efforts of jockey, Paul Carberry, who accompanied the winning gelding.
According to Meade, “He wasn't travelling down the back in that ground so Paul sat up on him and gave him a breather. He had already decided going out the ground was just as bad everywhere and stuck on the inside. Because he gave him that breather he was able to stay through the ground - Paul's a magic rider.”
He went onto reveal the future plans of his trainee, saying, “Monksland is only five. He stays three miles so now Big Buck's is out the World Hurdle looks more open. He'll get an entry in that race, but that was a hard race there so he might not run again until Cheltenham.”
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