Dunum does it again as curtain comes down on Galway

Course specialist Dunum regained his crown in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Ahonoora Handicap on the seventh and final day of the Galway Festival.

Natalia Lupini’s eight-year-old is a regular visitor to Ballybrit, with his record at the track now standing at four victories from eight attempts.

As well as winning this €110,000 contest in 2023, he has finished third in the last two renewals and also landed the lucrative BMW Mile at last year’s festival, a race in which he finished down the field earlier this week.

Dunum was an 11-1 shot back into action just five days later and after being sent straight to the lead by Billy Lee, he found plenty from the home turn to keep the chasing pack at bay, with Unique Journey a length and three-quarters behind in second.

“He’s a great horse around here – he has a great record,” said the winning rider.

“He actually ran well here on Tuesday evening. He was just too fresh and keen and did too much. I just said today to the lads that if it works I’ll just let him roll along and not interfere with him. He skipped along on the ground and loved it.

“I think he came on from Tuesday night. It was always going to be hard to win a Galway Mile on his first run of the year.

“Today I thought he had a better chance if it didn’t take too much out of him. He travelled away great. I got a great sit down the hill and all the way nearly to the two (furlong marker) before I had to go for him, so that was a big help.

“He loves the hill and picked up against it. He just keeps trying all the way to the line. Natalia and Craig (Bryson) have done a great job to keep him fresh. A prep run in a Galway Mile is probably not what you want, but it worked out well today.”

The most valuable jumps race on the card was the Lord Hemphill Memorial Handicap Chase, which went to the Willie Mullins-trained top-weight Blood Destiny (5-1) under Paul Townend.

Mullins said: “This fella is rated 150 carrying 12st in a good handicap, so that was a real good performance. That’s always in him but he hasn’t always given us that. He’s disappointed me on occasion, but he was very good there today.

“I’d imagine we’ll follow the same plan as we did last winter. I’d like to see if there’s a nice race for him in Listowel. That will probably be the next option. I think there’s a two-and-a-half-mile race there that Easy Game used to win. That could be an objective.”