Waaheb (right) just heads Turban at the final flight© Photo Healy Racing
Waaheb a very promising sort when successful three times in bumpers, recorded his first win in over 14 months when taking the McCarthy Insurance Group Hurdle at Cork.
The Elusive Quality gelding earned a rating in the mid 140’s when taking on top novice company last term – second to Jezki in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting – but his form has tailed off a bit since.
However this represented a good opportunity against just three rivals, with Way Up In The Air (lame) a non-runner. Turban was sent off the 8/13 favourite on his seasonal debut but the Willie Mullins-trained gelding jumped far from fluently in front.
Mark Walsh produced Waaheb to challenge two out and, with a slight advantage at the final flight, the 7/4 chance stayed on best under pressure on the run-in to score by a length and a half.
The pair stretched 17 lengths clear of Silver Friend in third.
Winning trainer Dermot Weld’s son Kris said, “It’s nice to get the first winner of the year out of the way. The ground was far from ideal but they did really well to get the meeting on. He jumped well and battled well, and we’ll look for a similar conditions race now.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
