Petit Tartare upsets hot-pot in opener at Listowel

Petit Tartare caused a surprise when supplying Joseph O’Brien with his eighth winner of the week at the Listowel Festival in the John Lynch Memorial Maiden Hurdle.

The Heliostatic gelding was sent off a 16/1 chance as punters concentrated on Balliniska Band after Panther Soul (passport irregularity) was an absentee. Randalls Ur Poet set the pace in this two-mile event but relinquished the lead to the 4/7 favourite when wandering about on the run to the penultimate flight.

However Shane Shortall was all the time making good progress up the stands’ side aboard Petit Tartare, and kept on strongly on the run-in to get the better of Balliniska Band by half a length.

Randalls Ur Poet blundered at the last to finish a further five and a half lengths adrift in third.

Shortall said, "He was a bit disappointing in his bumper and we felt he was a bit light so gave him a break and he looked a lot better today.

"It was a fact-finding mission today to see how he would take to it and he took to it very well. I felt I had them covered going to the second last but he made a mistake and I gathered him up and stayed at his job very well.

"He has put a couple of nice ones behind him and for a first-time out performance like that you'd be hopeful with him."

(TW & AM)