Le Richebourg completes treble for O'Brien Le Richebourg completed a treble at Listowel for Joseph O'Brien and JP McManus, as he comfortably took the John F McGuire Beginners Chase on his debut over fences. Second in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown over Christmas, the son of Network was fifteenth of twenty-four in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham in March. Last seen finishing a fine fifth in the Galway Hurdle behind Sharjah, the bay five-year-old was expected to deliver today, going off the 4/5 favourite under Barry Geraghty. In third early on, he improved a place into second with a circuit to race, and closed on the front-running Arvico Bleu approaching the straight. He was shaken-up from the second last, and got to the front after the final fence, going on to score comfortably by a length and three parts. Arvico Bleu (11/4) had to settle for second under Rachael Blackmore for Henry de Bromhead, while O'Brien also saddled the third horse home, and that was Successor who was returned at 25/1. Carrig Cathal, who was beaten in third at the time, crashed out at the last. Frank Berry, racing manager to JP McManus, said: "He jumped great and handled the ground. You couldn't ask for better and it was nice. He ran a blinder in the Galway Hurdle when the ground went a bit on him during the day. "We thought he might have went a bit higher over hurdles but in fairness he didn't run badly in the Galway Hurdle but hopefully he will (make a better chaser than hurdler); he'd need to, to be in the top division. "He likes the jumping which is a big thing, and you could only be pleased with him and we'll find a novice down the road with him." O'Brien and McManus earlier combined with Gold Seal, while they took the first two races separately, with Bay Hill (trained by Padraig Roche and owned by McManus) and Beautiful Citi respectively. Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
