RACEGOERS at Tattersalls were treated to a high-class open lightweight which took centre stage on the card, a race which pitched a pair of former Grade 1 winners in Hardline and Brain Power against the five-time point-to-point winner Er Dancer, and the race did not disappoint.

Brain Power’s jumping was electric throughout, and although having to overcome a scare with six fences to jump, the former American National winner was able to ease to the front exiting out of the back straight.

Er Dancer did bravely try to peg him back around the home bend, but the effort proved to be in vain as once Dara McGill gave the easy-to-back 11-year-old an inch of rein, he immediately put the race to bed, crossing the line 16 lengths clear of Er Dancer, with the Castletown-Geoghegan winner Hardline a further three lengths back in third.

“We will try to keep winning point-to-points with him and hopefully get to Liverpool for the Foxhunters in the spring,” winning owner and handler Warren Ewing said.

Better horse

“He is a better horse on better ground and had to go wide all the way. He just has loads of class and is loving life now. We have done work on his back, and he seems to be happier in himself.”

Ewing and McGill had seemed to be in pole position to record a double on the cards when Bold Reflection got for run on her rivals in the four-year-old mares’ maiden and edged clear of her 13 rivals on the run from the third-last fence.

The Ballycahane third did however find that her advantage had swiftly been eroded by the more patiently ridden Working Away (4/1 - 5/1) who burst to the front approaching the last and went on to supply Harley Dunne with his 100th success in the sphere.

“She is a nice mare,” winning owner and handler Denis Murphy said. “Her work was savage at home, and she has a very good pedigree. Workforce seems to be producing very tough horses, I have had luck with them, and she will now be for sale.”

The complexion of the geldings’ equivalent in the four-year-old age division underwent a similar change in the closing stages, as the strong-travelling Bob Cigar, who came to the front at the home bend, looked the likely winner coming to the final fence.

However, the more experienced Law Of Supply (6/1 - 8/1), who had finished fourth at both Ballinaboola and Ballycrystal, had other ideas about that.

He gamely powered to the front in the dying strides to complete a successful 24 hours for the Darragh Higgins and Michael Murphy combination, a duo that were winning their second four-year-old maiden of the weekend.

“Everything was happening a bit quick for him over two miles and four the first day and then he coughed after his second run last season. He wasn’t well then but he was very well today,” Murphy said of the Redbridge Stables-owned son of Mahler.

Cork yards make a Royal raid

DESPITE action on the Cork and Waterford circuit getting underway for the season at Kinsale on the same afternoon, two of the Tattersalls races were claimed by Cork connections who bypassed their local fixture, favouring the trip to Co Meath.

That included Inchidaly Robin (6/1 - 10/1) who came from off the pace to land the unplaced maiden under Andy Burke Ott.

Failing to complete in both outings in the spring, the five-year-old proved to be two and a half lengths too strong for Clody Flyer, with the Robin Des Pres gelding’s breeder, IHRB point-to-point official Susan Scott, one of those on hand to welcome the Owen O’Flynn-owned gelding back into the winner’s enclosure.

“He won his schooling hurdle in Tipperary last week, so we were hopeful coming here for this race after that,” the 19-year-old winner rider stated, adding that the gelding, who is trained by his father Alexander Ott, would now likely go hurdling.

Hashtag Boum (2/1 - 4/1) provided Midleton handler Daniel Murphy with the perfect start to the new campaign as the two-length victory of the Al Namix mare in the five-year-old and upwards mares’ maiden came with his first runner of the season.

Challenge

Immediately sent to the front by Murphy’s son James, Hashtag Boum posted a very assured round of jumping for a newcomer, and while fellow debutante Kayf Hope tried to close on the run to the last, she gamely found plenty for pressure to repel that challenge.

Bought unraced for just £6,500 from Paul Nicholls’s Manor Farm Stables at the Goffs UK Spring Sale only five months earlier, she is now set to be appear in the sales ring once again having been added to the catalogue for the upcoming Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale.

“She jumps great and had been doing everything right at home,” Murphy said of his wife Geraldine’s Hashtag Boum, one of 12 pointers that he has in training for the season. “She will improve again and I think she could be a good mare.”

Elliott hits the target

THE horses that Gordon Elliott has saddled between the flags in the opening weeks of the season are invariably hitting the target, and that was once again the case with the newcomer Wearelongterm (6/4 - 7/4 favourite) in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden.

The Milan gelding had been the subject of much interest when coming to the market in 2020 at the Tattersalls sales complex adjoining the point-to-point track, with the half-brother of Elliott’s ill-fated dual Grade 1 bumper winner Fayonagh, being knocked down for a price of €195,000.

That price tag unsurprisingly led to him being sent off as the favourite, and while he was kept honest all the way up the home straight by Sean McParlan’s French import Kapamazov, he recorded a two-length debut victory in the hands of Barry O’Neill.

“He slipped in the yard last year and missed a lot of time,” Elliott said of the Little Emperor Partnership-owned bay.

“There was never anything wrong with him, but he is still only a big baby. He will come on a tonne for that and will head to the track now. He is probably more of a hurdler than a bumper horse, but he is a nice horse.”

Horse To Follow

Bob Cigar (B. Hassett): This Westerner gelding caught the eye travelling powerfully into the lead approaching the home bend, only to be collared late home. He looks a smart prospect for the future.