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UP until last Saturday 2010 wasn't panning out as Stephen Gray would have liked. The Dundalk jockey was finding winners hard to come by after a stellar 2009 which yielded victory in the Guinness Galway Hurdle aboard Bahrain Storm. Last season Gray also took the Martinstown conditional riders' title, an achievement which earned him a place on the Ireland team for the South Australian Jockey Club Jumps Challenge.
That trip 'Down Under' has just ended with Stephen's weekend winner helping secure overall glory for the Irish team.
He won the feature hurdle at Morphettville's Irish Day on the Melbourne-trained Destiny Calls.
Gray was understandably delighted as he told local reporters it was his first winner for five months.
Hopefully, the Australian sojourn will help to finally kick-start the Dundalk man's 2010/'11 campaign.
Stephen could soon find himself riding a finish alongside his younger brother Shane, a star of the pony racing circuit who was second in the famous Dingle Derby earlier this month.
The teenager intends to apply for a full jockey's licence when he turns 16 in November.
Last week's York meeting produced no end of talking points – Sariska's refusal to leave the stalls and Dirar's win in the Ebor for trainer Gordon Elliott chief among them. Jamie Spencer was the jockey in question on both occasions.
They were all eclipsed by the win on Friday's concluding session of 100/1 shot Sole Power in the Nunthorpe.
Eddie Lynam's charge is no stranger to local all-weather racing enthusiasts as his two previous wins came at Dundalk.
- Francis CARROLL
