The €25,000 KEPAK Handicap Chase — the feature of Kilbeggan’s midsummer evening card — went the way of the value column. Rexem, put up at 6/1 each-way in our morning preview, was backed into 7/2 and held off Jasko Des Dames by half a length in the 7:48 for Josh Williamson and John C McConnell.
| Pos | Horse | Jockey | SP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Rexem | Josh Williamson | 7/2 |
| 2nd | Jasko Des Dames | Mike O’Connor | 10/1 |
| 3rd | Mickie Angel | J J Slevin | 100/30F |
The Race Story
The reasoning behind the pick could hardly have held up better. Rexem had been caught narrowly over this course before, had run with credit in a hot Galway handicap only last week, and two and a half miles on good ground was called “ideal” this morning. Williamson rode him with confidence, produced him to lead late, and then found just enough when Henry de Bromhead’s 10/1 shot Jasko Des Dames came with a sustained challenge up the run-in.
The market told its own story by the off. Ceanndana, the 5/2 favourite when the preview was written, drifted and finished out of the frame in the eight-runner field, with Mickie Angel assuming favouritism at 100/30 and running to it for third, four and three-quarter lengths back. Gordon Elliott’s Ma Jacks Hill, the other horse flagged in the value paragraph, could not land a blow.
Tipster Accountability
That is three winning verdicts from six races so far on the card for the Kilbeggan preview — Facile Ocean, Anodandawink and now Rexem — plus winning value lines on Cooladdi and Rocky’s Diamond. The 40/1 acca remains a might-have-been, killed earlier by Syosset and Pets Georgina. None of the tracked tipsters in today’s tipster review tipped in the race.
Looking Ahead
Kilbeggan signs off with the 8:18 Connellan & Noone Solicitors Flat Race, and the preview’s verdict is Inishtearaght at 2/1 — Emmet Mullins’s Killarney debut runner whose form got a timely Galway boost — while any market move for Peter Fahey’s debutante Appy Ways should be respected. A fourth winning verdict would make it quite the evening in Westmeath.
