Irish Panther roars home for decisive victory Irish Panther stamped his class all over the Crottys Lake Maiden Hurdle at Clonmel with a facile all-the-way success. The Lucarno gelding was last seen finishing third in a valuable handicap hurdle at the Punchestown Festival. Prior to that, he was 10th in the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and third in another quality handicap hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown. That form, and his rating of 128 saw him go off a very warm order at 2/9 favourite. Cian Cullinan kept it simple by kicking him on from flagfall. In The Trenches was the only horse remotely close to them four out and Irish Panther readily increased the lead jumping the penultimate flight. He cruised in by a whopping 31 lengths from In The Trenches (3/1) for an in-form Harty team. Eddie Harty said: "It’s their first winner and they bought him well. Brian Whelan, who is from Dublin, has a camera business and is our yard sponsor and Jennifer (Coyle) works for the IHRB. We bought online last year. "He’s a very good horse on his day and was running in top-class company. You can put a line through the County Hurdle — 99 years out of a hundred they go flat out, but they crawled and it didn’t suit him. He ran a great race at the Dublin Racing Festival, and he was entitled to win this as he did. “We told Cian to keep it simple, don’t try and be clever, just let him enjoy himself, and he did and he won well. It was great to get today. He has run very, very good races, and he deserved his win. “As regards where he goes now, we’re undecided. He could go back for a good handicap hurdle or another option we’re throwing around is to go chasing with him as he’s such a good jumper and he’s got the engine for it." Irish Panther was formerly trained by the late Edward O'Grady. Additional reporting by Tom Weekes
