Inis Meain another for Hogan

Denis Hogan has impressed many both with his training and riding over the past few years, and the 24-year-old was back in the winners’ enclosure after Inis Meain took the Holy Cross Maiden Hurdle in great style.

The Bernstein gelding was sent to the front before halfway and, after surviving a terrible blunder two out, kept on far too strongly for his rivals.

Hogan eased the 5/2 chance right down on the run-in and still had 11 lengths to spare over Charming Ways (66/1), with the odds-on Silver Shuffle (8/11) finding no extra in the straight another three quarters of a length away in third.

Hogan said, “It was probably an average contest but he jumped slicker and travelled better than he did here the last day. The 8lb allowance (for horses that had not won a race) was also a big help.

“I’ve no real plans, we’ll see what the handicapper does, and he’ll go out to grass before he goes back on the Flat.”

With a rating of just 44 on the Flat, he certainly has a mark to take advantage of in time.