The John Kiely trained Taking Stock justified support when landing division one of the Laurels (C&G) Maiden Hurdle in the hands of Mark Walsh.

Walsh who was prominent for most was very lucky not to be brought down at the fourth last when Gormanstown Cuckoo made a very bad mistake.

The 3/1 favourite was in front from the third last where he made a slight mistake himself, but he quickly recovered and kept on strongly from the last hurdle to score by a convincing three and a half lengths.

Winning trainer Kiely said afterwards: "He's a real chaser in the making. He deserved that as he has been unlucky in the past."

"He settled much better today too as that has been a problem in some of his races. The better ground and the fact they went a good gallop helped."

Kiely was full of praise about the groundsmen stating: "The ground is a credit to them here today, they have done a wonderful job."

"There's a good covering of grass on the track and there's plenty of cut in the ground, they made a big effort."