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Donal Murphy
Trustyourinstinct another winning favourite at Leopardstown
Trustyourinstinct leads home his rivals under Dylan Browne McMonagle
© Photo Healy Racing
A fifth winning favourite from six races this afternoon, Trustyourinstinct (3/1 from 9/2) landed the Group 3 Tonybet 'We're Here To Play' Stakes.
A now four-time winner on the level, the JP McManus-owned homebred was successful over flights at Tramore in May.
Beaten just a neck by subsequent St Leger hero Jan Brueghel on his penultimate start, he again had to settle for second on his most recent outing in the Royal Whip Stakes.
Settled in second by Dylan Browne McMonagle, the Churchill chestnut was ridden in pursuit of the front-running Kinesiology with less than two-furlongs to go.
Soon getting to the front, the market leader increased his advantage in the closing stages and was a length and three quarters clear at the line.
The aforementioned Kinesiology (9/2) just held on for second, with Thunder Roll (28/1), a stable companion of the winner, a nose away in third.
"Dylan just said that on his last two runs he's been beaten by two Leger winners. Continuous, who won last year's Leger, beat him in the Curragh and then obviously this year's horse," O'Brien reflected.
"We weren't sure about the mile-and-a-half trip as his best runs had been at ten but he really got the trip well.
"He deserves a big win and I'm delighted to have a big win this weekend for JP as well."
When asked if he could mix it back over hurdles he said: "I don't know. To be quite honest he's obviously a very talented horse but he's not the most natural jumper in the world.
"Whether he'd come back for a handicap hurdle somewhere at some stage I'm not sure.
"We'll enjoy the Flat with him for the rest of the season anyhow and it's great to win a good pot here this weekend.
"He qualifies for a lot of big pots around the world as we get into the autumn so he could potentially end up in a race internationally. We'll enjoy today and see how he pulls up."
Additional reporting by Gary Carson