Rock an easy winner of Punchestown opener

The Jessica Harrington trained Rock The World justified odds-on favouritism as he ran out an easy winner of the opener at Punchestown this afternoon, the CBRE Property Advisors Supporting Kilmacud Crokes Rated Novice Hurdle.

The Michael Buckley owned six-year-old son of Orpen got off the mark on his seventh start over flights at Down Royal in early November before running a cracker to finish third in the Grade 2 Monksfield Novice Hurdle at Navan on his last outing.

Available at 11/8 last night he opened on-course at 5/6 before going off the clear 8/11 favourite under Robbie Power.

He was sent to the front turning into the straight and he soon asserted, going on to score by an eased down seven lengths. A Sizing Network kept on to take second at 13/2 under Jonathan Burke for Henry De Bromhead while the front-running Tawseef faded to finish third.

Jessica Harrington said afterwards: "He was entitled to do that. Maybe the ground was a bit heavy for him the last day and maybe he didn’t totally stay. It is lovely ground out there and he put that behind him.

"He is so much stronger this year and he will go to Leopardstown at Christmas now. There was talk of a handicap hurdle next weekend but that might be a bit quick."

Additional reporting by Gary Carson.