Races
GIGGINSTOWN LOW-DOWN: Retirement “definitely not” on agenda for 2-time Festival hero Samcro
Samcro will not be retired after his run at the Galway Plate last week
Gigginstown House Stud racing manager Eddie O’Leary says duel Cheltenham hero Samcro will not be retired after his disappointing showing in the Galway Plate.
Carrying top-weight, Denise Foster’s 9-year-old could only muster 16th of the 22 runners at Ballybrit under 5lb claimer Jordan Gainford, but an immediate halt to his career is not on the agenda according to connections.
The son of Germany could be in the hunt for a twelfth career success later this term, and a second of the season.
When asked if retirement was a possibility, O’Leary told the Racing Post: “No, definitely not.
“Look, two starts ago he was very good at Killarney when he won and that wasn’t too long ago. We were going to go straight to the Plate after that and maybe we should have instead of running him at Listowel.
“That run at Listowel was our fault, not the horse’s.
“It was obviously a disappointing performance at Galway, but he made an early mistake and then made another one three from home and he gave a big heave after it. We’ll see how he is before deciding what to do next but he won’t be retiring anyway. As I said, that Killarney win was only a few weeks ago.”
Fellow maroon-and-white representative Battleoverdoyen put behind an underwhelming showing of his own in the Wednesday feature when winning later in the week.
“He was acting the maggot in the early part of the Plate and didn’t really run any sort of race in it.
“There could be a bit more improvement to come from him now and at least he has managed to get his head back in front anyway.”
Finally, O’Leary highly doubts 2020 Supreme second Abacadabras will switch to novice chasing next season.
The gelding won two Grade 1’s over timber last season, despite bowing out early of the Champion Hurdle at the third flight.
He said: “We haven’t even chatted about it yet, but I would doubt it very much that he will go over fences this season. I don’t know for sure and it’s early days yet, so we’ll have a chat about it in a few weeks.”
