Churchstonewarrior masters his rivals

Churchstonewarrior was very easy to back this morning but ran out a convincing winner of the staying maiden hurdle in Sligo.

The top-weight drifted from 10/11 to 11/4 before racing. He then opened at 9/4 and went off at 2/1.

Denis O'Regan had him on the shoulder of Midnight It Is racing to the final flight of this extended three mile one test.

A lovely jump at that obstacle saw him take over and the six-year-old Mahler gelding powered away halfway up the run-in to win by an ever-increasing six lengths. Highland Sting got up for second at 18/1 as Midnight It Is (3/1) dropped to third.

"He's an improving horse. He's still immature but he'll be a lovely horse over a fence next year," said trainer Jonathan Sweeney.

"We'll tip away over hurdles for the time being and see how he gets on.

"We were hoping to go to Cork last week but the ground was too quick. He's a winter-ground horse.

"Even yesterday I was worried the ground here mightn't be soft enough and I spoke to Tracey O'Meara (clerk of the course) and she told me to ring her in the morning.

"She had it walked at seven o'clock and, in fairness to her, she gave me a good description of it and I was happy to travel here then."

Additional reporting by Mark Nunan