Imperial Breeze blows them away at 25/1

Imperial Breeze was another to leave punters scratching their heads as he dominated from the third last in the two mile handicap hurdle at Roscommon.

The 25/1 chance, trained by Neil McKnight, faced a battle for the glory with Couleur De La Loi however, the latter blotted his copybook with a blunder at the last (when second) which stopped him in his tracks. This left Imperial Breeze to increase the winning margin to five and a half lengths.

“It was only his second start for us. On his first run at Downpatrick he probably didn’t handle the track. His bloods came back wrong as well and he was sick and it took us a long time to get him back,” Neil McKnight explained.

“The last three weeks he was showing more so we decided to give him a run. Ian (McCarthy) said he’d probably be better over fences. He’ll probably get another couple of runs over hurdles.

“He’s a big scopey horse and he probably needs a fence. We were really running him over hurdles to get him fit to go chasing.”

Couleur De La Loi (5/1) held on for second by a nose from 9/4 favourite Gretsky. The latter had been 4/1 this morning and opened at 11/4 at the track. Itsonthelist at 33/1, got his punters a place dividend in fourth as 18 went to post in this handicap.

The winner paid €41.70 for a win on the Tote.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson