John Joe Walsh seen here with his son Brendan© Photo Healy Racing
Cliff House made light work of the assessors initial 61-rating when slamming the opposition under Niall McCullagh in the concluding Youth Raceday On 5th June Handicap at Tipperary.
A son of Kevin Prendergast's great old campaigner of yesteryear, Mustameet, the John Joe Walsh-trained Cliff House had shown a hint of promise in three efforts in maidens to date.
The 25/1 chance found himself in front without too much effort from under two furlongs out and it was soon just a question of how far as he went on to score by three and a half lengths from Ibsen
When queried as to whether such a performance was anticipated Walsh said: "Nothing was unexpected – we came to the races to win.
"He's a nice horse and he'll make a lovely hurdle horse as he stays well.
"I wanted to come here for the mile and a half and this is the best ground he's got.
"We were only fourteen lengths behind Bolger's horse (Cosmic Cannonball) at Gowran and I'd expect her to be rated around 100 and we were here off just 61.
"We'll look for another handicap now." (TW & EM)
