Two Horses Killed In Accident On Route To Clonmel

Two Horses Killed In Accident On Route To Clonmel

Two Tony Mullins-trained horse were sadly pronounced dead on Tuesday afternoon, after their trailer was involved in a road traffic accident on route to Clonmel Racecourse.

Mullins tweeted the news: 'Very upsetting day today for our yard but we will just have to dust ourselves off and start again. Horses killed in a road accident. No people injured.'

The equine casualties were Do As You Wish, a five-year-old mare who was unplaced in four career starts and was due to contest the Ardfinnan Maiden Hurdle - later won by Noureev, trained by Gearoid O'Loughlin.

The other sad loss was Uffizy, another maiden five-year-old mare, who had run six times in her career and was hoping to land a blow in the Slievenamon Beginners Chase over two miles - won later by the former Tony Martin-trained Littlestickarubarb.

The pair had been withdrawn earlier in the day under the message of encountering traffic difficulties, but Mullins confirmed the real reasons through social media later on in the day.

He tweeted: 'Hard to believe how our day turned out. The box came away from the Jeep and hit the ditch.'

Kilkenny-based Mullins, brother of champion trainer Willie, had one other runner on the card - Enquire, who was not involved in the road-traffic incident.

The six-year-old travelled separately to the ill-fated duo on route to County Tipperary, but did not play a part in the Vee Handicap Hurdle, finishing a below-par ninth - many lengths behind the winner Scotch Quay, on what was an overall dark day for the yard.

Brother Willie - far more well known in the National Hunt sphere, certainly had a somewhat brighter afternoon - recording a double when Annamix got off the mark in a maiden hurdle, before Acapella Bourgeois got the better of the returning Yorkhill in the Suir Valley Chase.

Both were ridden by Paul Townend, who notched up 100 winners for the campaign.