One Last Tango (left) about to strike the front at the last© Photo Healy Racing
One Last Tango recorded his fourth career win when drawing clear on the run-in to land the Paddy Power Who Put The Wrappers Back In The Box Handicap Hurdle at Leopardstown.
The Eoin Griffin-trained gelding was fourth on his reappearance behind Fortunedefortunata at Navan last month but reversed those places in no uncertain manner. Walhaan set a decent pace in the testing conditions but Mark Walsh, completing a double here along with owner JP McManus having earlier landed a Grade 1 success with Dinoblue produced his mount to lead at the final flight.
The well-backed 4/1 (7/1 overnight) chance kept on strongly in the closing stages to beat By Your Side by four and a quarter lengths with 7/2 favourite Fortunedefortunata a further three quarters of a length away in third.
Griffin said, “He had a promising run on his return when finishing fourth at Navan and he’s come on a little bit from it.
“I was a little bit concerned about the ground today, but he handled it well and it’s brilliant to get a winner here at Christmas for JP. It’s been a while since we had a Christmas winner and we’re over the moon.
“It seemed to go pretty straight forward and it’s nice to get it.
“Hopefully he might come back here for the Dublin Racing Festival. We’ll see how it goes between now and then and have a chat with Frank (Berry, racing manager).”
The Slieverue trainer was saddling his ninth winner of the season and bringing his prizemoney haul to €150,000.
