Tiliver a comfortable winner under Townend

The Alan Fleming trained Tiliver got off the mark on his fourth start over fences, as he ran out a comfortable winner of the Kilcawley Construction Rated Chase.

Successful on his Irish debut at Ballinrobe in September of 2015, the French import failed to build on that victory, but was placed on his last two starts at Roscommon and Tramore respectively.

Sent off at 4/1 today he raced in mid-division under Paul Townend, and did well to survive a bad mistake at the fourth last.

He recovered quickly from that error and improved to dispute the lead before the last, getting to the front on the run-in before stretching clear to score by seven and a half lengths for owner Barry Connell. Caniwillyegiveme (11/2 this morning, returned a 3/1 joint-favourite) couldn't match the winner on the run-in, and had to settle for second under Barry Browne for Seamus Fahey. Manuka was the other joint-favourite, and he was a length and a half back in third with Johnny Barry aboard for Karl Thornton.

Townend said afterwards: "He did it well and done well to survive a mistake down the back. He just frightened himself a bit and didn't jump the last couple very well but he was dynamite up until that.

"He galloped away up to the line. It probably wasn't the greatest race in the world, but he got his head in front and hopefully he can build on it.

"Barry (Connell) was saying they thought he was going to be a lovely horse earlier in his career, but he just lost his way a bit. Hopefully he is after maturing and will fulfill his promise now."

STEWARDS REPORTS

R.C. Colgan, rider of Tom Horn trained by Peter Maher, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount was lame when pulled up.

A.W. Short, rider of Fenlon's Hill trained by Paul Stafford, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount whipped around at the start and refused to race when a fair start had been effected.

Additional reporting by Eamonn Murphy