100 of the best for Lalor
By Michael Duggan
Last Sunday’s North Tipperary Foxhounds point-to-point fixture held on the lands of Peter McCutcheon at Lisboney, Nenagh attracted a large attendance.
Punters were treated to an exciting afternoon’s racing with the kudos going to local girl, Liz Lalor, who completed a remarkable return to race-riding when steering 5/4 shot Cloudy Morning to victory in the open lightweight for Lady Riders.
Lalor has been one of the country’s leading female riders over the past decade and this victory was all the more meritorious given that she and her partner, Tom Keating, had welcomed their beautiful daughter, Alex, into the world just over five weeks earlier.
It also marked a notable milestone for the popular Clonmel jockey as Cloudy Morning’s win provided her with her 100th career success.
Sent to the front in the early stages, Cloudy Morning, who is trained in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford by well-known jockey Declan Queally for owner Michael O’Donovan, proved much too good for his three rivals when coming home two lengths ahead of the Maxine O’Sullivan-ridden BL Swagger.
Winning trainer Queally said: “It brilliant for Liz and she is remarkable having only had her baby five and a half weeks ago. She gave the horse a fantastic ride and did everything to perfection. He jumped well for her today and we’ll keep tipping away in these open lightweights with him now.”
Commenting on her landmark success, Ms Lalor stated: “Obviously it is a proud day for me to ride my 100th winner. Fair play to Declan (Queally) for giving me the opportunity and I’m over the moon to have come back on a winner. I hope to carry on now and, hopefully, equal or surpass the record for winners ridden by a lady rider which is held by Helen Bryce-Smith with 106. It fairly busy right now for me with the new baby and all, but I love race-riding and I’ll stay at it for as long as I can.”
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