By Tom Frary
Continuing the stellar form of the Jessie Harrington stable, Theresa Marnane's Givemethebeatboys (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}–Dromana {Ire}, by Dutch Art {GB}) edged a thriller for Saturday's G3 GAIN Marble Hill S. at The Curragh. Off the mark a fortnight earlier at Navan, the 11-1 shot was towards the fore from the outset under Shane Foley before being left in front two out. Headed by TDN Rising Star and 13-8 favourite Noche Magica (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) a furlong later, the bay battled hard between that rival and Ballydoyle's Listed First Flier S. winner His Majesty (Ire) (No Nay Never) to get back up and beat Noche Magica by a head, with the same margin to His Majesty.
“He was very impressive when he won at Navan, a furlong down you'd think 'how is this horse going to win?' and he put his head down and galloped the whole way to the line,” Kate Harrington said of the winner, a bargain €11,000 Goffs Autumn Sale graduate. “He hated the ground that day and was green. He's learned an awful lot from that and will learn an awful lot from today, he'll be even more competitive the next day when we go to Ascot.”
Con Marnane added, “He was a cheap horse, Amy picked him out in Doncaster but he went lame, he got a foot abscess. I was gutted as he was my favourite horse at the sale, but we bought him at Goffs then in October. We've won all the good races at Ascot with horses we've sold, or whatever, but we haven't got the Coventry yet. This is our fella.”
Saturday, Curragh, Ireland
GAIN MARBLE HILL S.-G3, €60,000, Curragh, 5-27, 2yo, 6fT, 1:14.81, gd.
1–GIVEMETHEBEATBOYS (IRE), 131, c, 2, by Bungle Inthejungle (GB)
1st Dam: Dromana (Ire), by Dutch Art (GB)
2nd Dam: Tecla (Ire), by Whipper
3rd Dam: Mahalia (Ire), by Danehill
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN; 1ST GROUP WIN. (€15,000 Wlg '21 GOFNO1; €11,000 Ylg '22 GOAUYR). O-Mrs Theresa Marnane; B-Airlie Stud & Mrs S M Rogers (IRE); T-Jessica Harrington; J-Shane Foley. €36,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $48,859. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Noche Magica (Ire), 131, c, 2, Night Of Thunder (Ire)–Pious Alexander (Ire), by Acclamation (GB). 1ST BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (£230,000 Ylg '22 GOFFUK). O-Mohammed Ahmad Ali Al Subousi; B-Mountarmstrong Stud & Alexander Bloodstock (IRE); T-Paddy Twomey. €12,000.
3–His Majesty (Ire), 131, c, 2, No Nay Never–Czabo (GB), by Sixties Icon (GB). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (325,000gns Ylg '22 TATOCT). O-Smith, Magnier, Tabor, Westerberg & Brant; B-Newstead Ltd (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien. €6,000.
Margins: HD, HD, 2. Odds: 11.00, 1.63, 2.75.
Also Ran: Buyin Buyin (Ire), Valiant Force, Democracy (Ire).
A thrilling renewal of the Group 3 GAIN Marble Hill Stakes sees Givemethebeatboys run out a narrow winner as the colt makes it two wins from two in the hands of Shane Foley for the in-form @jessica_racing team 🥇 pic.twitter.com/R8xa4w88QS
— The Curragh Racecourse (@curraghrace) May 27, 2023
Givemethebeatboys was named after the famous Uncle Kracker song, and after giving those in attendance a little taster in the Curragh parade ring, Marnane promised to give a full rendition of his favourite tune at Ascot should he win the Coventry.
“I am emotional,” he added. “This little horse, I have been so lucky with Bungle Inthejungle. I had a very good filly by him last year, Funny Money Honey (Ire), and another very good one in Blame Thechampagne (Ire).
“This horse had problems when we bought him. The poor lads that I bought him off, there's nothing I could do about it, but I basically got him at half price. They are great operators, the Brickley brothers, and they run a good ship at Ard Erin Stud. They will rightly get their name in lights because of this and they deserve it. I hope they are here–they're probably in the bar and I'll be with them in a minute!”
The success of Givemethebeatboys was very much a family one with Marnane's daughter Amy picking the horse out at the sales and other daughter Olivia riding him out every day at Harrington's yard.
As well as looking forward to Royal Ascot with Givemethebeatboys, Amy reflected on an “up and down year” at the breeze-ups, and explained how with a little bit of outside the box thinking, the family have a genuine Royal Ascot contender on their hands.
She said, “I think he's a very good horse. He showed a lot of promise from very early on. We've only ever had two Bungles before this. One is a stakes winner in Doha and Funny Money Honey is the other. Mrs Harrington had her last year and here we go again with Givemethebeatboys. “We're going to go to the Coventry and try to do what we did with Different League (Fr) (Dabirsim {Fr}) [won the Albany S. at Royal Ascot in 2017].”
She added, “It's really difficult to get a Bungle Inthejungle into a breeze-up sale because they don't walk. They are not sales horses but my God they are racehorses.
“It has been an up and down year for us with the breezers. The buyers are gone so dependent on that clock and it makes it really difficult. Let's say this horse for example, if we sent him to a breeze-up sale he wouldn't have clocked. It's really difficult and some of the horses in the breeze-ups, their sale date is the Derby. We train these horses ourselves so, if we don't make the breeze-up sale, we can race them.”
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