05 August 2023

Fahey on the mark again at Galway with Ambitious Fellow

05 August 2023

Peter Fahey notched up his fourth winner of this year’s Galway Festival when Ambitious Fellow scored in the feature BoyleSports Handicap Hurdle.

Fahey had already struck with A Law Of Her Own, The Big Doyen and A Sign From Above earlier in the week before Ambitious Fellow prevailed at odds of 14-1.

It was the second of Fahey’s winners partnered by Sam Ewing, who was also on A Law Of Her Own – his first winner of the season.

Ambitious Fellow always appeared to be travelling within himself before Ewing made his bid for home two out.

Once he hit the front, he had to be kept up to his work to see off Noel Meade’s Bugs Moran by three-quarters of a length, with the favourite Icare Allen six lengths away in third.

“Sam made a good move to nip up the inner before coming down the hill and it could have been the winning and losing of it. It was a brave move but it worked out great for him,” said Fahey.

“He lost his form a little bit but had an issue after he ran at Limerick last year and it took him a while to get back right. He had a lovely run the last day when he was completely wrong at the weights, but it gave him confidence coming here.

“I was worried about the ground but it worked out great.”

He added: “There are four involved in the OGB Partnership including Ber (his wife) and after he won a bumper, we brought him to the sales but couldn’t get anyone to buy him. We brought him home and he has now won at the Punchestown Festival and has landed a big pot today.

“We had four winners last year, we’ve had good old craic again and it has been brilliant.”

Aidan O’Brien enjoyed a short-priced double through Navy Seal (1-4 favourite) in the BoyleSports Casino Irish EBF Maiden and Portland (15-8) in the Gra Chocolates Irish EBF Nursery Handicap.

Stable representative Chris Armstrong said of Navy Seal: “He was a still a bit babyish throughout the run but came on from Killarney, where he ran a nice race on debut.

“Seamus (Heffernan) felt once the penny dropped, he showed a nice turn of foot to quicken up and peg back Joseph’s horse (Bad Desire). He will come on from it and will be a nice middle-distance horse for next year.

“He’ll probably step up to stakes company now and into something like the mile Group Two at Leopardstown during Champions Weekend.”

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