Racing

Golfing aces hoping to be on a par with home runners at Fairyhouse

Harry Derham is hoping to see Givemefive give a good account when he travels to Ireland for the WillowWarm Hurdle

Golfer Graeme McDowell: he is a member of Smash Racing, a syndicate that includes Brooks Koepka. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Golfer Graeme McDowell: he is a member of Smash Racing, a syndicate that includes Brooks Koepka. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Fri Nov 29 2024 - 16:07

Harry Derham is hoping to see Givemefive give a good account when he travels to Ireland for the WillowWarm Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Saturday. The four-year-old has won three of his five starts over obstacles for his owner Smash Racing, a syndicate that includes Major-winning golfers Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka.

He could only finishing fourth behind the reopposing Bottler’secret in a Grade Two event at Fairyhouse in the spring, but turned the tables on that rival when providing Derham with his first Cheltenham winner as a trainer in the Masterson Holdings Hurdle in late October.

Givemefive has plenty on his plate as he heads back across the Irish Sea, with Gavin Cromwell’s Bottler’secret part of a home defence that also includes Gordon Elliott’s pair of Kala Conti and the unbeaten Wodhooh, as well as the Willie Mullins-trained French recruit Anzadam. Derham, though, is up for the challenge.

“He’s not the easiest horse to place now, but we just want to save him for handicaps in the new year, so this is the only four-year-old race he can run in,” said the Boxford-based trainer. “He’s in good form and I’m pleased with the dry forecast for him, he’ll like the nice ground. I would like to think he will run a nice race, but it will be a tough task as he has to give weight to some quite nice horses, but we do think he’ll run well.

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“It’s been a great journey with him, and Graeme in particular has absolutely loved it and has been really engaged in the ownership journey. We’d like to think the horse is not done yet.”

Derham’s charge is joined on the trip from Britain by Harriet Dickin’s Dodger Long, who split Givemefive and Bottler’secret when picking up the silver medal at Cheltenham’s Showcase meeting.

Dickin said: “We’re really looking forward to it. It will take the performance of his life to even get a place. But every time we’ve run him we’ve thought that and he just produces a better performance again.

“At Chepstow we didn’t think he’d win but be in the first four and he won, and at Cheltenham we thought he would do well to finish in the four and he very nearly won – with the hurdles in I think he would have won.

“We meet Harry Derham’s horse at 3lb better this time, and I think this track will suit us better than Cheltenham. He’s quite a speedy little horse and has run well around Newton Abbot and Market Rasen. Having said that he’s also versatile and he seems to run his race wherever.

“He’s every right to be there, it will be a hard job for him but it will be a great experience for us, the jockey and the owners. It’s the last four-year-old graded race on the calendar so that is why we’ve gone really, and although there is some stiff opposition we thought why not let him take his chance?”

The Grade Three contest is the feature event on a bumper eight-race card which kicks off the two-day Winter Festival at Fairyhouse. Three-time Grade One-winning hurdler Impaire Et Passe debuts over fences in the SIS Beginners Chase, while John and Tom Kiely’s top-class bumper performer A Dream To Share returns from 301 days off the track in the Kettles Country House Hotel Supporting Fingal Ravens GFC Raceday Maiden Hurdle.