Lonesome Boatman cruises to Cork success Sean Allen's Lonesome Boatman was a popular local winner of the Paddy Power Cork Grand National. The nine-year-old was sent off 8/1 (from 16s this morning) under Darragh O’Keeffe for the three-and-a-half-mile Listed event and dominated from the front, making all and keeping up the gallop to prevail by six lengths from Big Debates. The victory was well received by the Cork crowd, with the winning stable being a small local outfit based only 40 minutes away from the track. A four-time point-to-point winner and third in the 2024 Champion Hunter Chase at Punchestown, this was a first victory under Rules for the Jukebox Jury gelding. O'Keeffe, well clear in the jockeys table at the halfway point of the season, was completing a treble after earlier wins for Henry de Bromhead on Mister Pessimistic and Echoing Silence. Winning trainer Sean Allen said: "That is unbelievable! Darragh rode the horse in Punchestown (last May) and put this race to us. We knocked the cobwebs off him at Listowel in September as you wouldn’t want to be coming to this race without a run. “Today was the plan and the man on his back – what can I say, he was brave as a lion everywhere. Even when he was five or six lengths ahead, he was still firing the horse at fences. The plan was to go a gallop and he was really on-song. “I farm in Araglin, which is 40 minutes away and this is my local course. I have eight horses and my brother Darragh, who is friendly with Darragh (O’Keeffe), rides out for me and I have plenty of local support too.” Regarding plans, the trainer quipped: “Pints will be drunk and we’ll talk about it then!”. Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
