The former Virgina Considine-trained Stand Down (pictured) was amongst the winners at Maryland’s Grand National Meeting on Saturday.
Now under the care of Joseph Davies, the son of Yeats ran in five Irish point-to-points where he was runner-up at Taylorstown last May behind Alone No More.
Stand Down was then sold for £20,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham May sale to Hamish MacAuley and registered his first success states side in the 3m Western Run Plate which was run over timber fences.
Another former Irish point-to-pointer to finish in the prizemoney was Pocket Talk in The Benjamin H. Murray Memorial timber race over 3m2f where he was third.
Also trained by Davies, the son of Alkaadhem who was a winner at Aghabullogue and Belharbour last season for Robert Tyner, had one previous start for his new connections the previous weekend at Monkton where he finished fourth in a 3m timber race.
There was also some familiar faces from the Irish point-to-point scene as Eddie Keating, Evan Dwan and Paul O’Neill all had rides on the day.
Paul O’Neill finished third aboard the former Arthur Moore-trained Politicial Theatre in The Western Run Plate while Eddie Keating was runner-up aboard the Katherine Neilson-trained Aquies.
Eddie Keating has already enjoyed success in the saddle state side when he steered Shinobi to victory at Monkton and had three race bookings which included a ride in the feature race, the $50,000 Maryland Grand National aboard Joshua who he was fifth on, while Evan Dwan had two rides at the same fixture.
Followers of the timber racing scene in America will be looking forward to this weekend fixture at Maryland for the $100,000, Maryland Hunt cup which includes the former Tom Keating-trained Drift Society and also Vintage Vinnie who was previously trained by Colin Bowe amongst the entries.
Irish point-to-point graduates have enjoyed success in locations further afield to Ireland and the UK with the likes of Scorpiancer and Portrade in the US.
The Jack Fisher-trained Scorpiancer landed the Grade 3 $50,000 Temple Gwathmey handicap at the 97th annual Middleburg Spring Races last April while Portrade secured big race success at Saratoga two seasons ago when he scooped the lucrative $150,000 Grade 1 Writers Cup.
