Not for the first time on the day it was Harry Swan and Barry O’Neill fighting out the finish of a Hunter Chase at Cork on Bank Holiday Monday.
First blow had gone the way of O’Neill when he had claimed the mares’ hunter chase aboard Lar’s Lass, but Swan countered in the Jack Tyner Memorial Hunter Chase aboard the James Motherway-trained Dinny Lacey.
It was O’Neill’s mount Ultimate Optimist, who was going in search of the hunter chase hat-trick following back-to-back wins at Limerick and Down Royal, who travelled marginally the better into the home straight.
But as the two market principals moved clear of their rivals, Ultimate Optimist, the odds-on favourite, made an error at the final fence and that opened the door for Dinny Lacey to take full advantage and record a three and three quarter length triumph in the colour’s of Brian Acheson’s Robcour.
The Lisronagh fourth Down The Highway survived a late blunder of his own to take the third spot.
The nine-year-old Dinny Lacey was recording his first triumph since winning a novice chase at Limerick in December 2020, having most recently found Lord Schnitzel a length and a half too good at Castlelands.
Cloyne trainer Motherway suggested that the plan for the season had been to try and qualify him for the Aintree Foxhunters, but that bid had failed when he fell at Naas in February, and the Champion Hunter Chase at the upcoming Punchestown Festival would likely be his next port of call.
Drought over! %uD83C%uDFAF
— Cork Racecourse (@corkracecourse) April 10, 2023
Dinny Lacey toughs it out best of all to get his head in front for the first time in over two years as he lands the Jack Tyner Memorial Hunters Chase under @HarrySwan15.
Well done @james_motherway %uD83D%uDC4F pic.twitter.com/MwQO115DZx
