Dympnas Well comes home best up the hill

Dympnas Well stormed home to land the 80-95 handicap hurdle over an extended two and a quarter miles in Downpatrick for trainer Paul Nolan.

Sean O'Keeffe 's mount made a mistake in fourth at the final flight but ran on well once switched to the outer.

She got her head in front in the final 100 yards and went on by a length and a half at 4/1. Alexharwill finished second at 12/1 and was the same distance in front of Zambezir (8/1).

The front-running 5/2 favourite, Natural Breeze was swamped in the closing stages and finished out of the places in fourth.

Michael McKenna representing the owner Padraig Donohue said: "We reared the mare Melancholy Hill and she is the first foal since we had her, and we just decided to race her and maybe breed from her later on.

"So far she has been very, very lucky. She won in Tramore and she was unlucky the last day when she got boxed in. She's probably not a super mare but she is a very good handicapper.

"The jockey was so happy with her. She had a lovely run around and no difficulty at all. The little bit of experience makes a difference too.

"We were part of a horse called Macs Joy a few years ago and he did very very well. We have stayed in the game in some way or other. Difficult at times but days like this make it all worthwhile."