Groody Hill lands a punt

The progeny of Alderbrook often seem to excel when the ground is on the soft side and his son Groody Hill landed a punt (14s into 9/2) on the heavy Punchestown going in the Punchestown Annual Membership Handicap Chase.

Alan Crowe 's mount was lucky to survive a first fence blunder but after that things went pretty smoothly for the J P McManus-owned five-year-old. He looked a winner barring mishap from before the second last and he had Ten Fires covered when that one departed at the last.

From there Groody Hill didn't have to fully exert himself to beat Andrea's Answer by five and a half lengths.

Alan Crowe said of the Christy Roche-trained winner: "The ground made a big difference to him. It probably wasn't the greatest race but he did it well." (EM)