Be My Fortune gets off the mark in dramatic fashion The Gordon Elliott-trained Be My Fortune (14/1) was the winner of the Bank of Ireland Brendan Maloney Memorial Maiden Hurdle for rider Jack Kennedy. The five-year-old son of Soldier Of Fortune came into the race off the back of a disappointing bumper run in Downpatrick. The race had a chaotic start where the eventual winner was hampered in running at the first hurdle and found his feet throughout the contest, but the race took another twist as the Willie Mullins pair who looked set to be 1-2 came down at the final hurdle, as the market leader How's Ellie and Paul Townend came down at the final flight, bringing down stablemate Boo Radley and Sean Cleary Farrell in the process. This allowed the Shark Hanlon-trained Crystal Mariner into the lead, but under a strong drive, Jack Kennedy managed to get his mount up late to win by three and a half lengths. Speaking after the race, rider Kennedy said: "I was nearly brought down at the first and ended up in no man's land. He took a while to warm into his jumping and was going as hard as he could. "He was running on and was going to run a lovely race anyway. Paul (Townend, on How's Ellie) was probably going well, I couldn't really see from where I was. "When the two horses went at the last, he was just getting into gear and his jump at the last was actually his best one. I knew then that he would come well and had a chance of catching Darragh (O'Keeffe, on Crystal Mariner)." (Quotes from Mark Nunan)
