The veteran Kylecrue set himself up for a trip to Cheltenham next month when seeing off his younger rival Prospectus to win the feature race at Galway on Sunday.
Templemore based trainer John Ryan almost enjoyed the biggest win of his career at Punchestown the previous week when Kilcarry Bridge tried to make all the running in the Grade 3 at Punchestown but Kylecrue gave his connections some compensation when making all under a good ride from Conor Brassil.
A decent novice chase on the card went the way of Henry de Bromhead and Ireland’s current leading conditional rider JJ Slevin with Calino D’airy doing the honours for the second time at the track.
It was a good afternoon for Philip Enright who won the opening race for his biggest supporter, Robert Tyner, when Midnight Stroll won what looked to be a good maiden hurdle, and Enright followed up later on the card aboard Hard Bought for trainer John Walsh.
The concluding bumper saw a very smart racecourse debut from the winner Gallahers Cross who followed up his Punchestown point-to-point win to land the bumper by six and a half lengths for Peter Fahey and Katie Walsh and he could be a horse with a bright future.