Lord Church backs up reappearance win with another success

The Michael Halford and Tracey Collins trained Lord Church followed up his reappearance win at Limerick last month by defying a 5lb rise to make it back to back wins when landing the concluding Cork Handicap.

Settled mid division by Ronan Whelan as Timeonourside took them along, Whelan moved closer early in the straight to throw down a challenge.

With the early pacesetter having no more to offer from over a furlong out, Lord Church went on from Grand Citadel and Martinelli

Topweight Masoun stayed on strongest of all from out of the pack to snatch second close home but the Churchill gelding was always doing enough to hold on for a half-length victory.

Michael Halford said: "He is a big scopey horse and I thought coming here that he would handle the extra furlong and that the better ground wouldn't be a problem.

"He got the job done, hopefully can continue to progress and he has a great attitude and will to win. You'd like horses that know how to win and he is owned by a good patient man in Brian Gallivan."

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.