BY SEÁN HOLLAND
JUST last month Gavin Sheehan was celebrating riding his 700th winner, and now the Dunmanway native has another huge reason to celebrate.
Sheehan was on board Datsalrightgino to win the Coral Gold Cup in Newbury, a race that had a prize pot of £250,000. What makes this win even sweeter for the West Cork jockey is the fact he was meant to be racing in Newcastle last Saturday. With that meeting abandoned, he made the trip to Newbury to ride for Jamie Snowden. Jockey Tom Cannon was originally booked to ride Datsalrightgino, but Sheehan is a key part of Snowden’s operation and was always in line to take over if Newcastle was off.
Speaking afterwards Sheehan expressed his relief at being able to ride the winner of the Coral Gold Cup. He said: ‘It means a lot, it’s a very hard race to win and with it being the local track (to Snowden’s Lambourn stable). I’m not crying now, but I would have been crying if Newcastle had been on and I had seen this lad go past the line.’
The 16-1 Datsalrightgino saw off the challenge of Mahler Mission in second place, with Monbeg Genius coming in third and Eldorado Allen fourth.
