Bedrock

Bedrock ran a cracker in the Galway Hurdle to finish fourth. Reluctant to line up, he started off at the back of the field, which was not an advantage as things panned out. Still towards the rear as they raced down the hill towards the second last hurdle, he threaded his way through under a superb ride from Denis O’Regan, and he arrived there on the run to the last with a chance. He had done a lot of running to get there though, and he just kept on to finish fourth.

This year’s Galway Hurdle was a race in which it paid to be handy enough, the first three home raced prominently from early, all three were in the first five from flagfall, and it was difficult to make ground from the rear. Iain Jardine’s horse was fit from the flat – he had run five times on the flat this season, including in the big Connacht Hotel amateur riders’ race at Galway on the Monday evening – but he hadn’t run over hurdles since April. Also, this was just his ninth run over hurdles and it was his first run in a handicap hurdle.

An easy winner of a novices’ hurdle at Musselburgh in March on his first run for Jardine, his first since a wind operation, he ran out of his skin to finish third in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree in April. This was his first run over hurdles since, and he proved here that he was up to his mark of 144. A 1lb hike is more than fair, he is progressive and, still only five, he will be of interest wherever he goes next.

Galway, 2^nd August 2018