Orandi shows smart turn of foot to win Galway Mile Handicap

Orandi played the waiting game before slipping through a gap up the inside to scoot away and win the feature Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap on the second day of the Galway Festival.

Lord Massusus and Dunum disputed the early lead with Orandi handily placed in midfield before the race began to take shape on the turn for home.

Pierre Royal was the first to lay down his challenge down the straight but when the space opened up for the Tony Martin-trained Orandi, Robbie Colgan sent the 16-1 shot through the gap and he showed a smart turn of foot to pull clear and gallop on to a one and three-quarter length victory.

Martin said: “This is absolutely brilliant and is great for the lads involved, so it couldn’t have worked out any better. CJ (Murtagh, owner) has been through the mill recently and lives for this horse, so we made a plan to come here and fortunately it has come off.

“He ran very well in this race last year, finishing third, and appreciates an ease in the ground. What a rider Robbie Colgan is – he is the most underrated rider in Ireland.

“Everyone makes plans and sometimes they don’t come true, but luckily enough this happened for us today so it was like Mayo (All Ireland win) on Sunday.”

Lizzie Twigg made it three from three over timber with an impressive display in the Colm Quinn BMW Novice Hurdle.

The Gordon Elliott-trained mare won a Punchestown maiden before following up in a Roscommon novice earlier this month and the 5-2 shot always had the race in hand.

Joseph O’Brien’s Fastnet Crystal and Gomez Addams took it up three furlongs out and Fastnet Crystal surged clear on the turn to the final hurdle.

But Jack Kennedy asked his mount for more on the run in and the Poet’s Word mare put the race to bed, pulling clear to win the Listed event readily by two- and-a-half lengths.

Elliott said: “She is a nice mare and to be fair, she should be unbeaten as I became greedy at the end of last season and ran her back quickly at the Punchestown bumper, where she was flat.

“She has been showing us all the right things and I don’t think she wants real winter ground, and is a spring filly. She is one for the festivals and I like her.

“I’ve tried to sell her after every run but couldn’t, for whatever reason. I nearly had her sold to America recently but thankfully she wasn’t and she could be a right one for the graded novice at Down Royal in November.”