King Leon (Robbie Power) is followed around the bypassed last by Keppols Queen and Most Peculiar© Photo Healy Racing
J P McManus, Aidan O'Brien and Robbie Power completed a short-priced double at Ballinrobe when King Leon made just about all in the McHale Fusion Vario Maiden Hurdle.
When they had to bypass the final hurdle in the two and a half miler (Westend Music took a heavy fall there with a circuit to go) King Leon looked a bit vulnerable but he kept up the gallop to see off Keppols Queen and Most Peculiar by a length and half a length.
Power, earlier a winner in the green and gold on Plinth in the first, disclosed: "We always thought he was a jumper and this will be his game. Whatever he does over hurdles will be a bonus as he will make a lovely chaser. He stays really well.
"I didn't want to make it but he jumped the first two hurdles so well that he ended up in front and we know he stays really well.
"He was jumping so well that I would have preferred to have jumped the last, he had a good auld look at the orange flags. He is going to make a lovely chaser one day."
Meanwhile McManus' racing manager Frank Berry said: "That was grand - he got it done grand. He battled away well and he jumped well.
"He is big enough to jump a fence down the road and we will see where we'll go from here. He goes on that ground." (DM & EM)
