Sassy, Classy and Gritty!

There were four in with a chance racing to the last in the Clonmel Oil Service Station Handicap Hurdle and it was 14/1 chance Sassy Yet Classy who found most on the run-in to score by half a length. Mon Lino (9/1) was second while the 7/2 favourite, and last year’s winner, Westerner Point was just a short head further back in third place, with Dedanann not beaten far in fourth.

This was a third hurdles success for the Gordon Elliott-trained winner to go with a bumper success and having won at Navan back in February, she was off until reappearing at Galway last month where a bad mistake at the second-last put paid to her chance.

The daughter of Gold Well clearly was all the better for that outing, and winning rider Denis O’Regan commented: "If you look through her form, she didn’t seem to stay three miles in the past but, with 10-7 today and the ground the way it was, we went very slow early on.

"Gordon said ‘ride her whatever way you want’, so I went forward after halfway and she got outpaced down the hill but then got going. She’s very tough, very gritty, and it was a great training performance.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes