Gilligan on the double as Nelson County scores for O'Sullivan Having been amongst the winners earlier in the afternoon, Danny Gilligan brought up a double as the Ross O'Sullivan trained Nelson County stayed on strongest to land the Hibernian Hotel Mallow Handicap Hurdle at Cork. A former point-to-point runner-up, the five-year-old had shown promise in maiden hurdles before stepping up in trip to finish third at Fairyhouse on his handicap debut. Slightly disappointing when a beaten favourite at this venue last time, the quicker ground may have been to blame for that below par effort. Back on an easier surface this afternoon, the 4/1jf travelled nicely in mid division before being produced from off the pace two out. Strongly pressed by Cullig on the run to the last, Gilligan found a willing partner who overcame a less than fluent jump at that obstacle to gain a hard fought one-length success. Ross O'Sullivan said: "The last day he ran here, we thought he'd be there or thereabouts but the ground was on the dry side for him. Every drop of rain helped today although he would probably want it softer. "His pedigree, which has Our Duke in it, says 'three-mile chaser' and that's probably what he'll do next year. "He did really well for Ciaran Murphy previously and was unlucky not to win a point-to-point and has got it together in his own bracket over last winter. He stays and jumps. "Billy Cooper, from Rathangan, and Liam Kearney from Naas are the two main owners and there's a bunch of other lads involved as well." Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
