Common Practice upsets the odds in Thurles feature There were plenty of short-priced favourites turned over at Cheltenham during the week and the trend continued at Thurles where Common Practice upset the odds in the featured Grade 3 Pierce Molony Memorial Novice Chase. High Class Hero looked the one they all had to beat especially after stablemate Fun Fun Fun was withdrawn due to the going (officially good to yielding, yielding in places), with the Willie Mullins-trained gelding sent off the 2/13 favourite. The hot-pot was prominent throughout in this extended 2m4f event but Common Practice, successful over fences at Wexford last summer and returning after a break of over six months, threw down a strong challenge in the straight. The dual-purpose Gleneagles gelding, trained by Joseph O’Brien for JP McManus, took a narrow advantage at the last and stayed on strongly on the run-in under Simon Torrens to score by three-quarters of a length. The pair pulled 15 lengths clear of Drumgill in third. Torrens said, “He seems to run well after a break and has duly obliged again. I won a beginners chase on him in Wexford, so I know him well. I was hoping for a big run today. "He jumped everywhere. I thought we went a nice enough gallop, and it was just a case of finding out how much Paul (Townend, on High Class Hero) had left. Coming to the last, I was confident I had him covered and he did it well in the end. "To ride any sort of winner is brilliant and to ride another Grade 3 winner is great." Quotes by Tom Weekes
