Gordon Elliott moved to within one winner of Willie Mullins at the head of the Trainers' Championship as his J.P. McManus owned Squouateur justified 11/10 favouritism to win the Welcome To The iRadio Student Race Day Maiden Hurdle at Fairyhouse today.

Ridden by Barry Geraghty, the ex-Charlie Swan trained French bred son of Martaline moved into contention in the home straight and in the end proved much too strong for his eight opponents, scoring cosily by two and three parts of a length.

Afterwards Elliott having his 61st Irish winner of the season, stated "he's done it well enough, although he'll probably have to improve a bit to step up into a novice hurdle. He did it nicely."

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Alan Magee