TAHINA PROGRESSES TO WIN PETER BURKE MEMORIAL

Ian Fortune

Saturday’s feature at Dundalk was the final of the Peter Burke Memorial boasting an impressive winner’s purse of €2,250 and Tahina Blue continued his rapid progression to emerge a good winner for Vera and Jason Croarkin.

The massive son of Good News and Tik Tok Bliss had only taste victory once ahead of the competition and was beaten in the opening and second round but he ran out an impressive semi final scorer in 28.74.

On Saturday night, he matched that return to land the big prize. The October ’20 whelp was only fourth into the corner after being left tight of room in the opening yards but he slipped onto the fence from a trap three draw and displayed fine pace into the third turn to move second behind the pace-setting Marina Joker.

Once doing so, it seemed inevitable the powerful galloper would come with a strong challenge. It duly came on the run in. Tahina Blue came through in the dying stages to deny the long-time pace-setter by a half length in 28.74.