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Hero is seeking top Irish honours

0 Comments | Citizen Gloucestershire, The, Jul 27, 2010

NIGEL Twiston-Davies is aiming to clinch victory at the first attempt in one of the biggest jump races of the year in Ireland tomorrow.

The Gold Cup hero will have his debut runner in the tote.com Galway Plate (5.25pm), the feature race on the third day on the Galway Festival, with Grand Slam Hero bidding to rack up his fourth win in a row.

The 12-1 chance will be ridden by Graham Lee, aboard for the gelding’s success in the Summer Plate at Market Rasen last time out, because Twiston-Davies’ stable jockey Paddy Brennan remains sidelined with an arm injury.

Grand Slam Hero, unbeaten in five races for Twiston-Davies in two separate spells with the trainer, left his stable in Guiting Power, near Cheltenham, yesterday morning to start his trip to Galway on the west coast of Ireland.

Twiston-Davies’ business partner Carl Llewellyn said a repeat of his performance in the Summer Plate, when he came from off the pace to win by a length and a quarter, would make him a strong contender.

“He’s progressed well this season and conditions have been right,” he said. “He’s going the right way but this is another massive step up again for him.

“He’s probably best on good ground, so the softer it gets the more his chances decrease.

“We had to enter him before he won at Market Rasen, so it’s been on Nigel’s mind for a while.

“It’s a tough race but he’s in the form of his life and if he runs up to his best he’s got a great chance, but you could say the same about quite a few of the others.”