Criq by a neck, following jockey's brilliant recovery

Criq Sun defied top weight, a dreadful mistake in-running and recovered from being headed in the closing stages to win the Ryans Cleaning Specialists Handicap Hurdle at Limerick today for trainer Lorna Fowler and jockey Conor Orr.

The son of Zambezi Sun was handed top weight with his 102 rating and while he almost blundered Orr out of the saddle with a serious error at the sixth hurdle, the rider recovered very well to stay on board.

Criq Sun was later headed at the second last flight by eventual runner-up Epsilon Indi but rallied gamely on the run-in to regain the lead close home and score a neck win.

Afterwards a delighted Fowler said "Conor gave him a brilliant ride; the best thing I find is the less I say to the jockeys the better and the best thing I can do is tell them about the horse.

"I told Conor to settle him and make him feel like he is not racing and that is exactly what he did and that's why we got the result today. The horse has matured immensely and he is in handicaps now and that's the key.

"He really stuck his neck out today and I had another runner finish second yesterday so I'm very happy."