The Gigginstown House Stud owned, Gordon Elliott trained Stone Hard was the easy winner of the D Pack Packaging Celebrating 10 Years In Business Beginners Chase at Limerick today, rewarding his many supporters (5/2 this morning in to 7/4) to win under Keith Donoghue.

The ex-Willie Mullins trained son of Robin Des Champs proved far superior to his 10 rivals and in the end won on the bridle, by 12 lengths from Double Island

Elliott was at Leopardstown and following the race his assistant Olly Murphy stated “we actually had him as a youngster and he was a horse we always thought a lot of. He obviously went to Willie’s (Mullins) and came back to us and today wasn’t a surprise as his work at home was very good.

“He’ll have to step up now but couldn’t have been more impressive today. He is a horse we think a lot of and might be starting to fill into himself now and is a big shell of a horse. He’s a horse we like.”

By Tom Weekes