Review NAVAN 30-APR-2000

Martell Aintree Hurdle runner-up Mantles Prince (2/1-6/4f) scored with the minimum of fuss in the 1m2f handicap to complete a double for Fran Berry.

Withdrawn (bout of colic) from a valuable handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse last week, winning handler Pat Hughes was in no doubt what might have happened.

'If he ran it would have been a formality last Tuesday. We treated the colic in three days and he'll run in the Shell Champion Hurdle next Friday,'Hughes said.

Baladeur (1/2-4/11f), runner-up to Aidan O'Brien inmate Tribal Drum on his debut at Leopardstown, duly obliged under Declan McDonogh in the 5f maiden.

Purchased as a yearling at Goffs for 23,000 gns. by Kevin Prendergast before he sold the Doyoun colt on to Chryss O'Reilly, the odds-on chance came home 5l clear of Biondo.

'I'll play it by ear with him. He needs 6f or even longer so that's a bonus in itself,' said the Curragh trainer, who later completed a double with pillar-to post winner Osprey Ridge (10/1), a 2nd success for Pat Cosgrave.

Michael Halford has a 6f Listed Race at Cork (8th May) in mind for his 3yo filly Regal Ash (2/1-5/2-2/1f) after the 1st reserve held off Caumshinaun by a neck to initiate Fran Berry's brace in the 5f maiden.

John Murtagh, with the able assistance of his new agent racecourse reporter Eddie Byrne from Dublin, teamed up with Jay And-A to easily scoop the 5f handicap.

'That winner was booked by my new agent and hopefully it's the first of many,' said the former champion after he eased the 9/2 chance to the front inside the final furlong to land the spoils.

Belfast-born Emmanuel Hughes, who trains under permit on the Curragh said after saddling his first flat winner, ' She has to be ridden with confidence and John did just that.'

Just three went to post for the concluding 1m6f EBF Race with victory going to Willie Bourke's 7/1 outsider of the trio, Scary Spice and Emmett Stack.