John O'Riordan
Razdan gets the gap when it matters to score for Timmons
Razdan and Kieran Buckley win for owners Royal Racing Club and trainer Chris Timmons Healy Racing
© Photo Healy Racing
Dual flat winner Razdan registered a first success over flights when running out an easy but somewhat fortunate winner of the Billie & Bertie Fitzgerald Memorial Maiden Hurdle at Downpatrick.
Sent off a well supported 11/4 chance(from as big as 7/1), the Chris Timmons trained six-year-old was travelling easily in third after jumping the final flight but appeared all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Fortunately for those that joined in on the plunge, leader Eco Pete drifted off the far rail, allowing the narrowest of gaps for Kieren Buckley to squeeze through.
Once seeing daylight, the eventual winner quickened up smartly to score by two lengths.
Chris Timmons said: "Kieren is a very good rider (substituted for Keith Donoghue), he has ridden a couple for us before and has got a great pair of hands.
"He's said he'd rather take a chance than go round them and forfeit ground. He has a gear so, if there was half a gap, he was going to take it.
""He did (loved the ground and jumped nicely) - he's only small, but he is well able to jump.
"He is a very talented horse, he's a bit of a character.
"He got injured last year, he fractured his pedal bone so that kind of curtailed us. He ran very well in the Lincoln on ground that was probably too testing for him.
"He's a good fun horse for the club.
"We'll mix and match, he just wants reasonably nice ground. I think there is a good handicap on the Flat in him."
Additional reporting by Michael Graham.