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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Two horses with same name to run against each other at Gowran Park

Two horses with the exact same name are set to run against each other at Gowran Park this weekend.

The two fillies, both named Sierra Nevada, have been declared for the 1m1½f Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden at the County Kilkenny venue on Sunday

One is a three-year-old trained by Jessica Harrington, who has run three times, while the other is a four-year-old trained by Charles O'Brien, who was well beaten in her sole start at three.

The 4.50pm clash will undoubtedly lead to confusion for punters and people working in betting shops.

It is highly unusual for two horses with the same name to clash due to Britain and Ireland having a joint stud book, meaning horses running either here or in the UK can't have the same name.

But the issue has arisen because the Harrington-trained runner was registered in the USA, while the O'Brien-trained fillie was registered in Britain.

The Harrington runner, owned and bred by the Niarchos family's Flaxman Holdings Limited, has finished third and fourth in her first two starts of the season and is expected to be towards the top of the market with Shane Foley on board.

Meanwhile, the O'Brien-trained Sierra Nevada, owned by Sue Magnier, was beaten 28 lengths when finishing 12 of 15 runners at the same venue last October. She will be partnered by Luke McAteer.

Incredibly, it is not the first time that two horses with the same name have raced against each other.

Two runners named Averti clashed at Yarmouth in 1994, with the Irish bred one finishing fifth ahead of the American bred horse, who came sixth.

Meanwhile, a clash between two horses named Exchequer was avoided in 2020 after they had both been entered in the same race at Musselburgh.

On that occasion, the British Horseracing Authority altered the fields of two races to split the horses up.

One went on to finish second in Division 1 of a seven furlong handicap for trainer Lucinda Russell, while the other was also runner-up in Division 2 for Richard Guest.

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