Lime Tree Valley a course and distance winner last month, doubled-up on his second start for trainer, David Marnane, in the Boylesports.com Handicap, defying top-weight with an all-the-way neck win in the hands of Colm O'Donoghue.
The ex-Kevin Prendergast-trained four-year-old gelded son of Val Royal, showed a lot of pace to take a decisive advantage in the straight but understandably those exertions began to tell in the closing stages and he needed the line badly at the finish to hold off Johnny Murtagh's mount, Royal Entourage
Backed from 11/2 in the morning into 7/2, Marnane was delighted for Lime Tree Valley's owner, Philip Lloyd. He said: "Philip is a very good patron of the yard and he flew in from Dubai (a Dubliner by origin) to see him win. The horse did it the hard way and he showed a lot of pace out there." (EM)
