Fendale justifies favouritism

Lord Fendale justified favouritism in the opener at Tipperary, the Walter Hennessy Auctioneer, Valuer And Estate Agent MIPAV TRV Maiden Hurdle.

Tenth and sixth on his first two starts over flights, the Shane Donohoe trained seven-year-old put in a much improved performance to finish second to Tesseract at Bellewstown earlier this month.

Available at 7/2 last night, the son of Erewhon opened on-course at just 2's, touching 7/4 before going off the 5/2 favourite.

He ran out a comfortable four and a quarter length victor here, with 50/1 chance Talsara (50/1) back in second under Roger Loughran for Tom Foley. Killarney Lakes (7/2) was a further length back in third under Davy Russell for Henry De Bromhead. Cock A Doodle Doo slipped up turning into the straight for the final time and brought down Hallmark (3/1) who was still in with every chance.

Andrew Lynch said afterwards: "I thought on his last run that he had a right chance and he improved for it. He jumped super but was a green when he got there.

"He's a nice horse who wants nicer ground."

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes