Teahupoo delivers again for Gordon Elliott, defending crown at Punchestown
TEAHUPOO SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED his Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle crown with a comprehensive victory on day three of the Punchestown Festival.
Gordon Elliott's charge returned to County Kildare off the back of successive defeats this season, including when bidding for back-to-back wins in the Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.
The eight-year-old filled the runner-up spot in the Cotswolds, having previously found star mare Lossiemouth too strong in the Hatton's Grace at Fairyhouse, and was a 5-4 favourite to get himself back in the winner's circle under Sam Ewing.
Advertisement
After being settled in midfield for the majority of the three-mile journey, Teahupoo travelled strongly before being nudged to lead rounding the home turn and the further he went the better he looked, with four and a quarter lengths the margin over Asterion Forlonge.
Elliott said: 'This horse has got me out of trouble a few times and he's done it again. He's a star of a horse.
Sam Ewing celebrates winning The Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle (Grade 1) with Teahupoo. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
'I was panicking turning in to be honest. If we had a couple of winners, I'd have had my chest out.
'He's so laid-back at home and you nearly start questioning yourself 'is he a bit heavy going around the ring'.
'Sam gave him a no-nonsense ride and kept it very straightforward. I'm very lucky to have the riders I have, the staff I have and the owners.
'I was dreaming last night if Teahupoo could win today and Meath could win the Leinster final it would finish off what has been a rough season to be a great season.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
3 hours ago
- The 42
Leinster make a statement with dominant semi-final defeat of Glasgow
Leinster 37 Glasgow Warriors 19 LEINSTER REDISCOVERED ALL the qualities they had been missing over the last few weeks as the province put Glasgow to the sword and booked their place in next weekend's URC final with an utterly dominant semi-final win in Dublin. This 37-19 defeat of the Warriors in front of over 15,000 supporters at Aviva Stadium means the province can look forward to a Croke Park date with the winners of today's second semi-final meeting of the Bulls and the Sharks, which will kick-off at 5pm next Saturday. Leo Cullen's men had looked a shadow of themselves across the closing rounds of the URC and during last weekend's unconvincing quarter-final win over Scarlets as the pain of their harrowing Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints lingered, but Leinster burst back into life here to reach the URC final for the first time. The province will expect a stern test against South African opposition next week but look well placed to land a first trophy in four years. The six tries came from Dan Sheehan, Jamie Osborne – who both scored twice – Thomas Clarkson and Ciarán Frawley, and by half time the province already had one foot in the final, building a strong 25-5 lead. Sheehan was outstanding on his return to the starting team, with Osborne, Tommy O'Brien, Ryan Baird and James Lowe also thriving as Leinster feasted on long periods of front-foot ball, while the Leinster pack bullied their opponents from start to finish. Glasgow, the defending champions, will be bitterly disappointed not to have caused their hosts more problems, as Franco Smith's side fell flat in suffering their third defeat at this stadium this year – two late tries somewhat skewing the scoreboard. Sheehan got the scoreboard moving for Leinster in just the second minute. Glasgow initially did well to put the brakes on a Leinster maul, but the province remained patient and accurate before a sharp Jamison Gibson-Park pass sent Sheehan through, with Sam Prendergast tapping over the conversion. The score didn't knock Glasgow and the visitors struck just three minutes later on their first attack of the game. After moving the ball wide, Kyle Rowe kicked ahead and George Horne went in pursuit, getting to the ball before any chasing Leinster defenders to score. Horne then stood over the conversion but was off target. Leinster's Andrew Porter, Jack Conan and James Ryan wrap up a Glasgow player. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO That was as good as it got for Glasgow in the opening 40 as Leinster ripped them apart with an accurate and aggressive display. Fifteen minutes in, Sheehan threw a lineout long out the back to Jordie Barrett, who was soon gobbled up. Leinster kept possession and moved the ball into a more central position as they inched forward, Scott Penny eventually scampering through to score. However the try was crossed off with James Lowe ahead of the ball-carrier as he collided with Scott Cummings, the coming together sparking some strong words and shoving between both teams. Lighting Lowe's fuse would be one of many errors Glasgow would come to regret. At the end of the first quarter the rain pelted down, with Prendergast sending a series of contestable kicks into the skies for Osborne to chase. Advertisement Building pressure with little return, Prendergast knocked over another three points when a penalty call fell their way. The game was being played exclusively in Glasgow's half, and a rare period of Glasgow possession saw Leinster turn defence into attack. Tommy O'Brien and Adam Hastings chase the ball. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO Sione Tuipulotu, who was struggling to influence the game, lost the ball in contact and Leinster were off. Tommy O'Brien kicked and chased alongside Glasgow out-half Adam Hastings. Leinster kept the ball and Gibson-Park fed Osborne, who had the wheels to pull away from Kyle Rowe and Euan Ferrie. It looked a clinical Leinster try, but was crossed off on TMO review with Gibson-Park's pass to Osborne forward. Two minutes later Osborne had his try. Lowe jumped to bat a high ball back to Jimmy O'Brien and Leinster went flying forward in numbers – Gibson-Park moved the ball on, Barret flashed quick hands before Jimmy O'Brien did the same and Lowe's wonderful pass out the back left Osborne racing for the line. No doubt about that one, but Prendergast pulled the conversion wide. Leinster were humming now and five minutes later they had their third, Thomas Clarkson muscling over after Leinster turned down a kickable three to go to the corner. Again, Prendergast couldn't convert. Leinster kept pounding away, looking to end the contest before it ever really got going. Ryan Baird peeled wide and tried to hit Lowe, but the pass was spilled, triggering another heated exchange. With the last play of the half Leinster bagged their fourth, mauling forward as Sheehan drove through for his second of the game. Prendergast's kicking remained off, signing off for the half with just one successful conversion from four attempts. With the province 20 points up at the break, it was unlikely his team would be made pay the price. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO Upon the resumption Leinster kept the foot down. Barrett rumbled over but knocked-on as he tried to ground the ball through two tacklers. Prendergast smacked a penalty off the post. The fifth try finally came when Gibson-Park fired another razor-sharp pass into Osborne's hands, allowing Prendergast improve his success rate with a simple conversion. Approaching the hour the home side were over again through a lovely flowing move. Lowe did well to win possession in the air before a purposeful carry along the wing. The attack threatened to break down but Leinster swung the ball coast-to-coast, with Prendergast and Penny both involved before Conan found Tommy O'Brien, who did well to keep the ball and feed Ciarán Frawley, a popular try-scorer just minutes after entering the action. Prendergast missed another effort off the tee, and was soon replaced by Ross Byrne, playing his last game at the Aviva in Leinster blue. Ciarán Frawley dives over. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO As the game fizzled out Jamie Dobie ended Glasgow's long wait for some points with a 72nd-minute try, converted by Tom Jordan, before Tuipulotu added a third, holding off Frawley's tackle to score, as a strong hail shower battered Dublin 4. At that point everyone involved was happy to wrap it up, although a good number of Leinster fans stayed back in the rain to sound their appreciation for a strong, determined effort from their team. This was more like it. Leinster scorers: Tries – Sheehan [2], Osborne [2], Clarkson, Frawley Penalty – Prendergast [1/2] Conversions – Prendergast [2/6] Glasgow scorers: Tries – Horne, Dobie, Tuipulotu. Conversions – Horne [0/1], Jordan [2/2] LEINSTER: Jimmy O'Brien; Tommy O'Brien, Jamie Osborne, Jordie Barrett (Ciarán Frawley, 56), , James Lowe; Sam Prendergast (Ross Byrne, 60), Jamison Gibson-Park (Luke McGrath, 69); Andrew Porter (, 58), Dan Sheehan (Rónan Kelleher, 56), Thomas Clarkson (Rabah Slimani, 56); Joe McCarthy, James Ryan (RG Snyman, 56); Ryan Baird, Scott Penny, Jack Conan (capt) (Max Deegan, 63). GLASGOW: Josh McKay; Kyle Steyn (capt), Sione Tuipulotu, Tom Jordan, Kyle Rowe, Adam Hastings (Stafford McDowall, HT), George Horne (Jamie Dobie, 52); Jamie Bhatti (Rory Sutherland, 44), Gregor Hiddleston (Johnny Matthews, 44), Fin Richardson (Sam Talakai, 44); Alex Samuel (Max Williamson, 44), Scott Cummings; Euan Ferrie (Jack Mann, 72), Rory Darge, Henco Venter (Macenzzie Duncan, 59). Referee: Andrea Piardi [FIR] Attendance: 15,762
The 42
10 hours ago
- The 42
Kildare's Joe McDonagh dream - 'This was probably only in the far off depths of my brain'
SHORTLY AFTER WINNING the Christy Ring Cup yet again last year, Kildare goalkeeper Paddy McKenna and his colleagues met with manager Brian Dowling to discuss pushing on. No county had won the competition more times and, frankly, none of the Kildare players fancied winning it ever again. McKenna was involved in all five of Kildare's Ring Cup triumphs, between 2014 and 2024, and was desperate to operate regularly at a higher level. Hitting new standards of fitness was a prerequisite, the players felt. A number of alterations were made to Dowling's backroom and perhaps the most significant was the addition of strength and conditioning expert Mickey Gillick. Truth be told, the players were pushing an open door with Dowling who sensed the need for a fresh approach himself. 'He was in agreement with us, he had it pretty much set up before we even went to him,' said McKenna. 'He knew himself that, right, we're going to need something big here going up to the Joe Mac.' It was a tough winter of physical investment but the dividend has been impressive. 'It's the fittest I've certainly ever been anyway,' said McKenna. 'That's probably an easy enough feat as a goalkeeper but for the lads out the field, they're all in great nick as well. And they're wanting more too. That's what we wanted really.' It hasn't been quite a straight line between last year's Ring Cup win and qualifying for tomorrow's Joe McDonagh Cup final against Laois though. In fact, when Kildare began this season's competition with a Round 1 defeat to Kerry, it looked as if their old habit of falling flat on their faces at the higher grade was repeating itself. Advertisement McKenna lifting the Christy Ring Cup last June. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO That was Kildare's ninth ever game in the McDonagh Cup, across three different campaigns — 2021, 2023 and 2025 — and their ninth consecutive defeat. Seven weeks and four unlikely wins later, McKenna is on the verge of the most significant achievement of his career. Truth be told, just staying up in the second tier of hurling this year would have been progress. 'This was probably only in the far off depths of my brain at that stage,' said McKenna of a Croke Park final fixture after the defeat to Kerry. 'Thankfully we didn't make it to 10 losses in a row. Look, it was just getting back to basics, realising that we had to show up for every single game.' So when exactly did Kildare start to think of actually winning the competition and of an audacious bid for Leinster SHC activity in 2026? 'Probably when we got the result in Carlow, to be honest, that was a big monkey off our backs,' said the five-time Ring Cup winner, referencing their Round 3 win. 'Carlow have had some massive results in the last few years, drawing with Kilkenny in the Leinster championship last year, beating Waterford in the league earlier this year, maintaining their status in Division 1B. 'That's the standard we want to be competing at regularly so we knew that if we were able to get a result against them…and beating Laois and Westmeath as well, the three teams that had been up in the Leinster championship, that's kind of where we got the drive and the realisation that, yeah, it could be on for us.' Kildare manager Brian Dowling. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO The thing is, Kildare didn't just sneak into tomorrow's Croke Park decider. They topped the group while it was Laois that had to conjure the late goal just to draw with Carlow and nudge the Barrowsiders out on scoring difference. Laois are still favourites to win and to make up for last year's final loss to Offaly. Three of their starting defenders – Lee Cleere, Padraig Delaney and Ryan Mullaney – along with half-forward Paddy Purcell, lined out in the 2019 final win. Several more 2019 performers are retained on the bench for this season's final. But what they hold over Kildare in experience and hurling tradition could be trumped by the sheer desperation of Brian Dowling's Lilywhites to make the most of this rare opportunity. 'It's going to be tough and I'd say Laois will have their homework done on us,' said McKenna. 'I'd say they found out an awful lot about us when we played them in O'Moore Park a couple of weeks ago.' The one certainty is that Kildare will play Dublin or Tipperary in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final in Newbridge next weekend. Win tomorrow and their dubious reward will be a date with Tipperary. Lose and it will be the Dubs coming to the redeveloped St Conleth's Park. For some, parachuting the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists back into the race for the MacCarthy Cup is unnecessary, even unfair. Reigning All-Ireland champions Clare are gone from the competition already after all, along with Waterford, Wexford, Offaly and Antrim. 'I can see both sides of the coin on that,' said McKenna. 'The fact that the Joe McDonagh is its own competition and, like, there's no other competition in the GAA where the winners of it go into a separately run competition that you could possibly win without playing the earlier games in it. A general view of the Joe McDonagh Cup (file photo). James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO 'But then it's a great carrot as well, knowing that we have another two weeks of this and you're summing hurling as well which is great. That's when hurling is at its best.' Kildare have already been promoted to Division 1B of next season's National League. Getting to the Leinster SHC would cap their greatest season in decades. The last time they competed in Leinster was 2004. McKenna is confident that the success is sustainable, pointing to the growth of hurling around the county. 'There's hurling again in Round Towers, for example,' he said. 'A lot of south Kildare would have had a tradition of hurling when it was strong in the '60s and '70s and they're coming alive again. 'Towers, Twomilehouse, there's even hurling going on in Kilcullen as well, and Moorefield are after going senior now which is huge. That would be a so-called football club, with Leinster club titles, but they're showing that they're well able to hurl as well. 'For hurling to be sustainable in Kildare, we need every club going like that and making players available and that's what's happening.'
The 42
12 hours ago
- The 42
'I still very much have the grá for it. People say it's a sacrifice, but it's a choice'
IT IS ALMOST 11 years since Caoimhe Costelloe conducted her first feature interview with this writer. Signposted for superstardom, she had just turned 18, already had All-Ireland intermediate and minor medals in her pocket and was looking forward to making her debut in what is now the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship. What's more, her Leaving Cert results had provided the Adare tyro with the points she needed to get into the teacher training college, Mary I. What strikes you reading that On The Ball article back, and a few more from the next four or seasons, is the incredible maturity of the Adare teenager, the obvious leadership skills and the fierce ambition. She was in it to win it. Now, ten days removed from her 29th birthday, and remarkably, having played in every championship game since – she didn't start once ten years ago due to a broken thumb but came on – Costelloe grins ruefully when considering her veteran status. 'You kind of think you're still the youngest in your head, but I think I'm like third or fourth eldest now,' says Costelloe. 'Some days I feel it, I definitely think I've abused my body now, a few aches! 'When I look at some of the girls that have got injured down through the years, I've been lucky touch wood. I broke my thumb in 2015 for the first round of the championship. I came on as a sub, I think that's the only championship match I didn't start so I have been lucky that way.' There were some All-Ireland quarter-finals along the way but largely, it's been more anguish and despair than exultation and joy. Inconsistency has pockmarked what the Shannonsiders have done and many of the historic minor-winning outfit of 2014 that came through and offered great hope for the future are no longer involved. Costelloe remains though and admits that her mindset is very different now to when she was interested only in winning senior All-Irelands with Limerick. But one thing, the core element, has never changed. Advertisement In action against Waterford's Bevan Bowdren last year. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO 'I think maybe time has made me a realist. At 17, I was probably confident that we could push on and, challenge for an All-Ireland, because underage, we've done that. But I probably, at that time, didn't anticipate how much it takes and how many things just need to fall into place for that to happen. 'But, I still very much have the grá for it, you know? I love going training, I love meeting new girls that come into our panel, and seeing the progress in them over a little while. 'Obviously, I would love to have challenged a bit more. And we probably had teams that were capable of challenging a bit more, but the grá hasn't gone away… I enjoy the company that the girls give. And it's nice sometimes, that younger generation has maybe a different attitude maybe to what I had, and they're a little bit more carefree. And I love watching that. 'People say it's a sacrifice, but it's a choice. I love challenging myself against the very best. I love going training and then challenging myself to try and get better. And you're looking at your stats and you're watching the video, and you're like, 'How much more could I have done in this situation?'' This latter element, this ability to measure contribution and improvement is one of the major changes in the world of inter-county camogie in the past decade. 'When I first came on the panel in 2013, we didn't have an S&C coach. There was no video analysis. It was a case of, 'Go out and win your own ball.' When I reflect back, I think how far we have come as a group and as a sport. Like, before, I remember being told at 13 or 14, that any ball inside the four white lines is a good ball. You'd get crucified if you went and did that now!' Much is altered but, life is still good. She began teaching in her alma mater, Our Lady's Abbey Girls NS and remains there. That means she is still living at home. Adare won a Munster junior title in 2022, which meant the world. Costelloe was nominated for an All-Star that year too. And she has had a ball immersing herself in the experience of being a devoted supporter of the hurlers, who changed the face of Limerick GAA forever in recent years, captained for all of that time until this year by her clubmate, Declan Hannon. 'I'm a Limerick fan first and foremost. I have loved going to Croke Park and seeing the boys succeed the way they have. And the family memories that we've created because of it.' The Limerick hurlers celebrate after last year's Munster final. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO By the time John Kiely's mob bid for a seventh straight Munster title this evening, Costelloe and her teammates will know exactly where they stand with regard to the Glen Dimplex Championship, because their Group 1 derby with Clare at Biomet Zimmer Páirc Chíosóg this afternoon [throw-in 2pm] is to all intents and purposes, a knockout game. They have both beaten Wexford, and with all-conquering Cork and last year's Division 1A League champions Tipperary also in the group, the consensus is that it is between this pair for the third knockout spot though a Wexford defeat of Tipperary at Chadwicks Wexford Park [4pm] would launch a couple of cats among the pigeons. Clare had a bye last week after winning their opener, while Limerick are playing their third game in a fortnight. They recovered from a chastening 38-point defeat by Cork in the first round, to edge out Wexford by a goal last week at Mick Neville Park. But Joe Quaid had the team very focused on the games that would matter in this period and there was no damage done by that initial hammering. With Costelloe scoring eight points, her clubmate Sophie O'Callaghan dominant in the middle, Laura Southern grabbing the goal and goalie Sarah Gillane making a great save, Limerick delivered. There is a good vibe around. It was Quaid that called Costelloe into the panel in 2013 while the current lead coach, Willie Banks, was a coach of the minor-winning squad the following season. It feels like things have gone the full circle for Costelloe. Certainly, there is no mistaking the excitement she feels ahead of a big game. 'We knew that the two games against Wexford and Claire were going to be huge. And I'm sure they were thinking the exact same thing. We and Clare know each other going back a long, long way now at this stage. It's great that this is probably a preliminary quarter-final in many ways. It's gonna be pure shoulder to the wheel for as long as we can and hopefully that will get us over the line.'
