On his third outing for Gordon Elliott, Top Mark a multiple winner in England, stepped up a place on his Thurles effort from a week ago to justify favouritism in the Suir (Ladies) Handicap Hurdle.

Always on the pace, the top-weight under Yorkshire girl, Jacqueline Coward, only had Wicklow Lad to beat from before the straight and he mastered that grey from two out to go on and score clearly by an easy nine lengths.

Winning trainer, Gordon Elliott said: "The plan was to drop in but Jacqueline used her head when he didn't settle. She has plenty of experience in England where she has 70 winners in point-to-points and she was third over the Grand National fences. We had to take the 7Ib off his back." (EM)