Announcer Ready for Two Sierra Nevadas in Same Race

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Announcer Ready for Two Sierra Nevadas in Same Race
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Photo: Edward Whitaker/Racing Post
Jessica Harrington trains one of two horses named Sierra Nevada entered in the same race June 12 at Gowran Park

Commentator Peter O'Hehir says he hopes to keep things as "simple as possible" when two runners called Sierra Nevada face each other in the June 12 Irish Stallions Farm EBF Fillies Maiden (4.50) at Gowran Park.

The clash has come about because one of the fillies, trained by Jessica Harrington, was registered in the U.S., while the Charles O'Brien-trained runner was registered in Britain.

It is the first time two runners with the same name will have run against each other in Britain or Ireland since 1994, when Averti, fifth, finished ahead of Averti, sixth, at Yarmouth.

O'Hehir said: "At the moment my intention is to refer to one of them as Charles O'Brien's Sierra Nevada and the other as Jessica Harrington's Sierra Nevada .

"There's not a simpler way really, you might start confusing people if you start talking about colors or whatever. A lot of people aren't watching anyway, they're only listening, so I think that's probably the simplest way to do it.

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"They're drawn close together and if they're anywhere near each other I might refer to them as the two Sierra Nevadas at some stage."

Harrington's Sierra Nevada is owned and bred by the Niarchos family's Flaxman Holdings Ireland Limited and looks one of the main contenders in the mile and one-furlong contest, while O'Brien's runner is owned by Sue Magnier and will need to improve greatly on her sole start at Gowran last October.

The same-name occurrence may be slightly confusing to some racegoers at the track and O'Hehir plans to address the crowd of his intentions before the race.

He added: "A lot of racing people wouldn't be too fazed, but I might mention it when they're gathering at the start just to clarify for others who mightn't be into racing as much that that is the intended plan, as it might sound a bit strange.

"You don't want to be confusing people with the GB suffix and all that. You're better off keeping it as simple as possible.

"I'm anticipating only one might make the business end, so we'll see how it goes from there."