Satu (centre) battles gamely to land the spoils from Rattan (on the rail) and Eightybarackstreet© Photo Healy Racing
The feature race at Killarney this afternoon, the Grade B Ladbrokes.com Handicap Hurdle over 2m 1f produced an exciting finish with the Eoin Doyle trained, Mikey Bulter ridden Satu just getting the verdict by a head.
Carrying bottom weight of just 9-9, the winning 8yo son of Marju, tracked the leaders early on before taking up the lead before the third last.
He was soon strongly pressed and joined before the last however he stayed on best under pressure to just prevail by a head at the line from Rattan (22/1) for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend in second.
The pair did get close on the run-in but after a lengthy stewards enquiry there was no alteration to the placings. Eightybarackstreet for Tom Cooper with his son Bryan aboard finished a length back in third at 16/1 while Oilily ran a cracker to finished fourth at 12/1 under Sean Byrne for his father Sean Byrne senior.
The 4/1 favourite Realt Dubh for Noel Meade and Paul Carberry ran no sort of race and finished last of the eighteen runners.
The winner was well supported this morning and went from his opening show of 14/1 into 9/1. On course he opened at 8/1 and was returned at that price.
After being absent from the track for a year and five months he made his reappearance at Thurles in February where he finished well down the field behind Snow Spell.
He was then given a spin on the all-weather at Dundalk in March before bouncing back to form by taking a handicap hurdle at Cork last month at 20/1.
Last time out he ran a huge race to finish third behind Snap Tie in a very competitive handicap hurdle on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival last month.
He was recording his seventh career success this afternoon. He won two on the level for David Myerscough back in 2007 and he also has a novice chase win (which came at Killarney in August of 2010) under his belt along with his four handicap hurdle successes.
Winning trainer Eoin Doyle said afterwards: "He ran a cracker in Punchestown. He was well in at the weights and he is a class horse on the flat.
"We got his wind done last year and that seems to have transformed him. The Galway hurdle is an option for him now and we may run him on the flat off his mark of 67."
After the race the stewards suspended winning rider Mikey Butler for one day for careless riding.
Donal Murphy & Thomas Weekes
