Orgilgo Bay clears the last under Mark Bolger © Photo Healy Racing
The John McConnell trained Orgilgo Bay justified 10/11 favouritisim as he ran out an easy winner of the feature at Downpatrick this afternoon, the Bronte Homelands Hurdle.
The four-year-old son of Lawman finished an excellent third in the Fred Winter at the Cheltenham Festival in March before disappointing on his next start at Ballinrobe in April.
He had a break after that effort and returned to action at Bellewstown recently, finishing a good second to El Salvador in a qualified riders race over a mile and a half.
Back over flights today and ridden by Mark Bolger he was prominent throughout and led after the fourth last.
He soon asserted after that obstacle and he kept on well from the last to score easily by twenty lengths. Dancing Roe finished second at 11/4 (opened 7/2) under Alan Crowe for Christy Roche, while Smiler was a further eleven lengths back in third.
McConnell said afterwards: "He was good. 4/5 shots are no fun! He was impressive. It's hard to know what was behind, but Smiler is probably 110-rated.
"He jumped well and hopefully now he'll go for the Galway Hurdle. He was a bit unlucky at Cheltenham where he pulled too hard and Ballinrobe probably came too soon.
"He's a delicate horse who doesn't take a lot of racing unlike Lindenhurst who is a tank.
"You'll probably not see Orgilgo Bay until Galway. He's a brilliant jumper and he'll be able to lay up with them in Galway.
"He'll have to go up, but probably will after winning by that distance. Hopefully he'll not go up too much!"
Additional reporting by Michael Graham
