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Punchestown 2024
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Review downpatrick 4th Mar
Runners in The Posh Nosh Bumper race away from the stands against the setting
© Photo Healy Racing
Gordon Elliott bookended the Downpatrick card with a short-priced double, with both Akorakor and Alberta running out easy winners and taking the County Meath handler's tally for the season to 81.
Bryan Cooper was aboard for the first leg of the brace, guiding Akorakor (4-9f) to a bloodless six length victory in the Easy Does It Maiden Hurdle.
The contest took a nasty turn as the field approached the second last, with Wee Gaza slipping up on the flat and bringing down Leapsandbounds and Sovereign Prince, but Cooper's mount was out of harm's way at the head of affairs and opened his account over hurdles with the minimum of fuss.
The double was brought up by the mightily impressive 10-11 favourite Alberta in the concluding Posh Nosh Flat Race.
Runner-up on his racecourse debut at Cork in December, the result never looked in doubt as the six-year-old breezed into the lead in the hands of Nina Carberry, and he duly put the race to bed with a slick turn of foot, leaving Hot On Her Heels trailing eight-and-a-half lengths behind.< Jumptoconclusions was a hugely popular winner of the Irish Jockeys Association Novice Handicap Hurdle having been backed off the boards by a delighted Downpatrick crowd.
Barry Geraghty sat motionless in the green and gold silks of JP McManus as he began to creep through the field aboard the 11-8 favourite on the final circuit, scampering to a four-length success after a neat jump at the last.< Annie Alainn (8-1) came with a late thrust to deny Disputed in the shadow of the post in a thrilling Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association (Northern Region) Handicap Hurdle.
The Irish Stallion Farms E.B.F. Mares' Maiden Hurdle went the way of Autumn Shades (4-1) who scored by a diminishing length-and-a-quarter from the strong finishing Kanjo < Magical Mother (14-1) broke her duck under Rules with a game success in the Martinstown Opportunity Handicap Chase, while even-money favourite Court Frontier scored readily in the Arkle Years Hunters Chase.