A six-day hat-trick for Eshtiaal! Eshtiaal made it two wins in 24 hours as he landed the two mile five handicap hurdle in Tramore for Gordon Elliott. The five-year-old gelding secured a comfortable 11-length victory in a two and a half mile Down Royal handicap hurdle last night with Jack Kennedy doing the steering. He showed no ill-effects in Tramore with Luke Dempsey guiding the 6/4 favourite to success by three lengths. In fact this brought up a hat-trick in less than a week as he started his winning run at Ballinrobe on Monday. Eshtiaal tracked Indian Fairy's every move before coming through to lead at the second last. Asithappens travelled strongly to be on terms with him at this hurdle. Eshtiaal was asked for more by Dempsey and he approached the last in front. Asithappens put in an untidy jump which ended his hopes as the favourite strode home. Asithappens (14/1) came home seven lengths in front of third-placed Pals Leg (7/1). Luke Dempsey said: "He has had plenty of racing this week but he is tough and he did it well. He jumped well and travelled well." Gordon Elliott's stable representative Ian Amond said: "He might get a bit of a break now before going for a flat race and then going to Galway. We will see what the handicapper does. His owners are English and they would like him to run over there so we will see." The going at Tramore changed to Yielding before this race. Additional reporting by Donal Murphy
