Presenting Lad and Gary Noonan (left) © Photo Healy Racing
The second split of the two-mile handicap hurdle was an action-packed affair which in the end was won by Presenting Lad (4/1) under Gary Noonan.
A couple of horses unseated rider, another ran out and the loose horses had a part to play as well in a messy affair. The winner was waited with in mid-division before coming through to lead at the third-last where eventual runner-up He's Leading Me On (16/5 fav) made a costly blunder.
Presenting Lad, runner-up in a division of the corresponding race last year, stayed on well from the last to hold the late thrust of He's Leading Me On by three parts of a length with Boston Brahmin the same distance further back in third.
Winning trainer Mark McNiff said: “I thought he'd win the last day (third at Wexford) but they walked around and he got very free. Philip Enright said then to put a line through it, he'd win the next day, and he was right.
“He probably should have won for the lads I bought him off, I'd be friendly with them. He had a race won here last year and went upside down at the last.
“He'll come back for that same race this year, touch wood. He's in good order.
“The false start didn't help him today as he can get a bit revved up but it worked out grand.”
Quotes from Gary Carson
