Chutzpal justified strong market confidence, as he trounced the opposition in the first divide of the John Purfield Memorial Handicap Hurdle.

Successful on the level at Killarney last month, the Henry de Bromhead-trained five-year-old was widely expected to follow-up this evening, going off the clear favourite at 11/10 (from 2/1 in early shows).

On just his third start for current connections and making his debut in handicap company over flights, the Markaz five-year-old disputed the lead early on, gaining an outright advantage after the second.

Briefly joined five out, the market leader eased clear from the third last and while far from fluent at the next, he never came off the bridle under Rachael Blackmore, easing to a 12-length success.

The Ciaran Murphy-trained Sydney Cruiser (11/1) was best of the rest in second under Alex Harvey, while the easy-to-back Cailin Aibrean (22/1 from 9s early) was half-a-length away in third.

"It was his first run over hurdles for us. I'm delighted with the way he jumped, he had been schooling nicely at home but he was really attacking his hurdles today. Delighted to see him jump as well as he did," stable representative Robbie Power, reflected.

"He is going to get a hike for that, but hopefully he is up to the step up.

"He got 12lb for winning in Killarney and will probably get the same for today, so we will see where we go with him next.

"He's in a good frame of mind and he's going places, so we'll look forward to him. We'll look forward to another hurdle with him.

"He's not that big, but he is strong and well put together."

The winner is first reserve in an 80-95 handicap over hurdles at Wexford on Friday.

STEWARDS REPORTS

J.C. Gainford, rider of Take My Hand trained by Michael Mulvany, reported to the Clerk of the Scales that his mount pulled up lame.

The Raceday Stewards interviewed D.A Kidd, rider of Highland King concerning his use of the whip in the latter stages of this race. Evidence was heard from the rider concerned who stated that he lost count and was concentrating on keeping his horse straight. Having viewed a recording of the race and considered the evidence the Raceday Stewards found the rider in breach of Reg.10.3.(g)(frequency) and having taken his clean record into account suspended him for three race days.

Additional reporting by Michael Graham