Point impresses in making winning Irish debut

Irish Point easily justified his long odds on price when running out a ready winner of the opening Buy Tickets Online at corkracecourse.ie Maiden Hurdle at Cork.

Winner of an AQPS Grade 1 bumper in his native France, the Robcour-owned four-year-old was sent off 2-7f on his first start in this country.

Always racing prominently under Davy Russell, the Gordon Elliott-trained gelding led into the straight before momentarily giving his supporters a brief cause for concern at the second last hurdle.

Runner up Splashing Out was throwing down a challenge when the eventual winner made a mistake at that penultimate flight. However, Russell soon had the gelding back in control and the duo quickened clear to win rather impressively.

Lisa O'Neill, representing the winning trainer said; "he did it very well and obviously had form on heavy ground in France. He did it really professionally and Davy is very happy with him.

"There is plenty to improve on and it is his first run in a while so he'll improve mentally and physically for it. You'd have to be impressed with it.

"It is lovely for Robcour to have another nice horse; they had Absolute Notions yesterday and him today so they have some good new recruits going into the winter months."

Paddy Power went 16/1(from 25/1) Irish Point for the Supreme Novices Hurdle and 25/1(from 40/1) for the Ballymore.

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes