Black Bamboo had little difficulty justifying 4/9 favouritism in Cork's Connolly's Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Maiden Hurdle today, scoring for locals trainer John Murphy and jockey Michael O'Sullivan and for Downpatrick-based owners.

Racing wide in mid-field, O'Sullivan made gradual progress through the race to lead at the second-last and the six-year-old scored readily from Ollie La Ba Ba

Innishannon-based Murphy reported “he was always a nice horse and the owners (Threedownoneup Syndicate) are great friends of ours from Downpatrick and have Russells Car Sales. I met Kieran (Russell) many years ago and this is lovely for them.

“Michael gave him a lovely ride, he was really cool and he educated him today. He is a nice horse going forward.”