Nina completes the circuit

Meath jockey Nina Carberry enjoyed a good weekend and also achieved a milestone in her career when she won with Noel Meade"s Queen Althea at Dundalk on Saturday. That victory at Dundalk completed a visit to the winners" enclosure at every racetrack in Ireland and she followed up that achievement by landing the Ladies Derby at The Curragh on Sunday. For that race at the Kildare track her boss once again supplied the ammunition in the form of the promising Miss Fancy Pants which won well. 'I suppose it"s a bonus to have Nina for these kind of races, she"s probably the best lady amateur in the world. The horse will stay further, we"ve thought about the GPT at Galway, but we will have to wait and see what the handicapper does, she is also entered in the Galway Hurdle,' commented the trainer. There was plenty of Meath success at Dundalk where Tom McCourt recorded a double, but one of them, Rookwith, had to survive a stewards" enquiry. Gormanston handler James McAuley was also on the mark with Enigma Code while South African rider Keagan Latham, a temporary Meath man with the Ger Lyons stable at the moment, was victorious on Send Me Home. Meath jockey Robbie Dunne partnered the Stephen Mahon-trained gelding San Giustino to victory at Downpatrick on Monday for his third winner of the campaign where a record crowd of over 3,000 flocked in through the turnstiles at the Ulster track. Trim handler Gerry Keane was also on the mark. Meade was also on the mark at Wexford on Friday where Carlesimo won the Campile Claiming Race under a strong ride from Fran Berry. The gelding justified favouritism and won in great style. There was an unsuccessful claim lodged to purchase the 10-year-old. Johnny Murtagh was the man in form at the Curragh on Saturday, completing a double which included one of the feature events, the Group 3 International Stakes with the Aidan O"Brien-trained Plan. Murtagh executed a smooth tactical ride, coming late and fast to prevail by a length from the English raider, Regime. That win completed his brace, as he also won with the Tony Martin-trained Flashy Beau and he was on the mark in the big race on Sunday when Moonstone edged out Ice Queen in a driving finish. Joanna Morgan continued her good form with Show Blessed making all for an easy success at Naas last Wednesday where Declan McDonogh was also on the mark. McDonogh also landed the opening handicap at Cork for Stamullen trainer Peter Casey with Ireland"s Call. Kilbeggan will host its biggest race meeting of the year this Friday with the Ladbrokes Midlands National worth €50,000 and there could be a Meath victory as Meade, Tony Martin, McCouth and Denise Foster all hold entries. Attendances at Irish race meetings grew by 1,743 in the first six months of 2008. This puts horse racing on target to achieve a new record figure of 1.5 million racegoers by the end of the year. For the first time, these figures incorporate attendance data for the two racecourses in the North (figures included for both years). However, it should be noted that this increase was achieved from a higher number of fixtures and the average attendance per meeting declined from 4,116 to 3,767. The figures also show continuing growth in many of the key performance indicators measured by the industry. The number of fixtures (plus 9.6%), races (plus8.6%), total runners ( plus 8.3%) and individual runners (plus 6.4%) have all increased year-on-year, as have the number of horses in training returned so far in 2008 (plus 3.3%). One area where the economic downturn has been more evident is in relation to betting turnover.