Sayar steps up for Grade 3 glory

The suspicion was that we witnessed something a bit special when Sayar scored at Kilbeggan and he built on that to land the Grade 3 Joe Mac Novice Hurdle at Tipperary.

He might have got a bit idle late on but be in no doubt that the Ruby Walsh-ridden and Willie Mullins-trained even money favourite was much the best in this two miler.

At the line the Audrey Turley-owned four-year-old had two and three parts of a length in hand over Morgan

"He did it well and it was only his second run (over hurdles). To beat experienced horses like he beat them was a good performance so we're delighted with him," reported Walsh.

"The ground felt testing on him but to be fair to Tipperary it's a summer track and you'd be expecting it to be testing. 

"He is by Azamour and maybe he'd be better on better ground but you'd be delighted with what he did today and he's only going to get better, you'd hope. He'll mature through the year."