Annexation made a fine winning jumps debut at Navan today as the Rachael Blackmore partnered gelding landed the opening Bet Online With BarOneRacing.com Maiden Hurdle for trainer Henry De Bromhead.

Sons of Wootton Bassett send 'racing Twitter' into a tizzy and the stallion-of-note, a multi-million euro Coolmore purchase in August, today produced his first Irish jumps winner with Annexation, having had two such winners in Britain and one in France.

Annexation was today held up behind the leaders and moved through to pass leader Charcor on the run-in before eventually scoring a two and a half lengths win over that rival.

De Bromhead wasn't present and afterwards Blackmore reported “it was a lovely performance. He's done well on the Flat since joining Henry and has been schooling well at home so it's great to see him do that.”

Quotes from Gary Carson