At the latest entry stage, 28 juveniles remain for the €300,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane S. at Naas on Aug. 7.
Of the 28 entries, six are British-based runners, with Jungle Mate (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}), who was bred by Ballyhane Stud, representing trainer Kevin Ryan. A winner and runner-up in two starts at Hamilton and Carlisle, respectively, the gelding worked well on Wednesday morning.
“Jungle Mate is in good form and did his final piece of work today and I was happy with him, so the plan is to run,” Ryan reported. “The ground is an unknown for him, but you never know until you run them on it and I feel he is a progressive horse who is getting stronger and stronger. It's a big prize so we will let him take his chance.
“Shane Gray will go over and ride him. Shane knows him well, has ridden him in his two races and rode him in his work this morning and has ridden in Ireland so it makes sense.
“The horse is owned by the Bronte Collection who are all friends of Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics and are getting great fun out of the game.”
Other winners still signed on include Brighter (Fr) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) for Aidan O'Brien, Golden Trick (Ire) (Galileo Gold {GB}) for Hugo Palmer, Innvincible Friend (Fr) (Inns Of Court {Ire}) for Tom Dascombe, and Karl Burke's That's For Sure (Ire) (Unfortunately {Ire}).
Including this year's prize-money, the total prize fund will be over €1.2 million since 2020, and 16 trainers and 28 different owners have won prize-money to date. The Ballyhane is part of a Bank Holiday Monday card which also features the G3 Ballyroan S. for older horses, and the chance to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup. Admission to the richest race day of the year at Naas is free. For more information on Monday's card, please visit the Naas Racecourse website.
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