Davy and Jerry Russell are all smiles after the success of Youghal By The Sea© Photo Healy Racing
Davy Russell teamed-up with his father Jerry to take the Tullyraine Veterinary Clinic Maiden Hurdle on Youghal By The Sea
Successful in a bumper last summer, the Gordon Elliott trained five-year-old was a good third on his debut over flights at Galway in September.
A mistake at the first put pay to his chance at Bellewstown last weekend, and turned out again quickly he was sent off the even money favourite.
Settled in second, the son of Milan closed on the front-running Go Guarantor from the second last.
He came with his challenge inside the final furlong, and hit the front with less than 150 yards to race, keeping on well under pressure from there to score by five and a half lengths.
Andrew Lynch was aboard the runner-up, who was backed from 15/8 into 7/4 on-course, for Andy Oliver.
The winning rider was understandably in a jovial mood afterwards as he said: "It's probably one of the most important winners I've ever rode!
"The pressure that was on me coming up the road to here was unbelievable. We travelled up together and he didn't open his mouth the whole way up so I knew there was something on.
"He (Jerry Russell) is the coolest man of them all.
"I struggled a bit but it's great that he got home. It was very important as we have the mare at home. We have full-brothers and full-sisters at home, and we raced the mother and the grandmother."
Elliott added: "Jerry has been a supporter of mine since I started training so it's nice to win for him, he'll win plenty of races.
"We'll get him home and see where he goes next."
Additional reporting by Michael Graham
