The Henry De Bromhead trained 15/8 favourite Ornua was the first winner of the new jumps season at Down Royal today, making all to win the opening Pat O'Hare Bookmakers Maiden Hurdle, under jockey Brian O’Connell.

The son of Mahler, backed from 6/1 this morning, was clear for much for the trip and in the end comfortably beat Vanishing Point

Afterwards O'Connell said: "I'd say he has improved a lot for better ground. He had two okay runs but on very heavy ground. I got into a nice rhythm there and he enjoyed the ground.

"He'll step up from that and keep going forward. It was a nice performance, it mightn't have been the strongest maiden but he couldn't do it anymore impressively as he did it.

"It felt lovely ground on him, it's genuinely good ground."

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Michael Graham