Fifth career success for Castleheath

The Ciaran Murphy-trained Castleheath produced another winning display at Galway last week to claim a fifth career success.

A dual-purpose performer, Castleheath was in fine form and won at odds of 3/1 for the Slevin family, Mount Temple. It comes after a great win at last year's Galway Festival and the Ballybrit course is clearly to his liking.

Victory in the €15,000 Medical Technology Ireland Expo Galway Handicap Hurdle over two miles certainly enhanced his good course record and secured a nice prize.

Always close to the pace under Eoghan Finegan, the Elzaam gelding led after two out to beat Shellrunforbriggs by four and a half lengths.

A dead-heater in a Flat handicap at last year's festival, the five-year-old, owned by Niall and Cathal Slevin, had chased home in-form Timurshah over hurdles here in August.

"I'm thrilled with him and he has been some servant,” said winning trainer Ciaran Murphy, Charlestown Stud, Mullingar.

“We couldn't believe he was beaten here at the summer festival, but he came up against a very well-handicapped horse. After his run in Perth, we put him away for today and he handles it well around here. I don't think he ever jumped as well as he did today.

"He has the maturity now to go for a nice handicap off a low weight and there is also a twist off him on the Flat too. He is an exciting type.

“The Slevins are great supporters of the yard and have really been behind me in the last couple of years, so I'm very lucky," he added.