Gigginstown and Willie Mullins' French recruit, Argentino was always likely to do better over hurdles at some stage, and so it proved when Bryan Cooper's mount landed the opening Surehaul Race Day Maiden Hurdle at Clonmel.

Without success but placed on the level in his native land, the Sinndar gelding was minus the cheek-pieces he'd worn on his previous start at Thurles. He left that effort, and the performance before that at Navan, well behind here.

Argentino, a 7/2 chance, proved much stronger than the favourite, I Knew Well from the last, and the five length victory prompted Cooper to say: "He took a while to get his jumping together but got it together today. I made too much use of him at Thurles the last day but was more patient today, and used his speed in the latter part of the race.

"He's a real summer horse and likes the drying ground-hopefully he can pick up a few more races."

B.T. O'Connell, rider of Fact File trained by C.Byrnes, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount made a respiratory noise in running.

(TW & EM)