Messie comes good for Ryan at Punchestown

If ever a horse deserved to win a race it was the Stephen Ryan trained Messie, who had been placed in his last five starts and in more than half of his previous twelve outings. All that changed at Punchestown last Tuesday when he battle well to take the two mile and four handicap hurdle.

Given a peach of a ride by Davy Russell, the Indian Danehill gelding was settled in mid division, he progressed well to be on the tail of the leaders turning to face the judge. One of the first off the bridle, Messie looked held jumping the final flight but once Russell got serious with him he responded in the gamest possible fashion to get up close home and land the spoils by threeparts of a length from Paul Townend's mount Rain In Spain.

Taking plenty of money out of the ring, the winner was paying a glowing tribute to the skills of Stephen Ryan who has placed him well. Even though he has gone up in the ratings, Messie is still on a fairly competitive mark, he obviously relishes a battle and with the ground remaining in his favour he can be placed to further success.

Bred by his owner Paul McEvoy, he failed to reach his reserve when offered for sale as a three-year-old, hence the decision to go to war with him and he has given connections a lot of fun.

Stephen Ryan will have 15 or so horses on the go for for the winter months including some nicely bred four-year-olds but the horse that we are all looking forward to is Gallowglass for whom several tempting offers were refused after he won his bumper. He is now back in cantering and will reappear around Christmas time.

 

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