Secret is out as Gibney charge gains overdue win The Tom Gibney trained Leave In Secret made virtually all under Darragh O'Keeffe to win the Bank Of Ireland Brendan Maloney Memorial Maiden Hurdle at Ballinrobe. Having his eighth start over flights, the gelding who had been placed in half those races, was sent straight to the front from flag fall. Dream Escape chased the 1/1f for much of the contest but had no more to offer on the run to the final hurdle. Despite a mistake at that obstacle, Leave In Secret kicked off the home turn to open up a gap on his rivals. Rememberthename came through to go second over a furlong out but could never quite get to Leave In Secret, who stayed on well to win by one-and-three-quarter lengths. Tom Gibney said: "His jumping fell apart in Galway the last day but, overall, he is a brilliant jumper. Today's jump at the last wasn't very good but he jumped very well. "We didn't know what went wrong at Galway but Jordan (Gainford, jockey) said he wasn't man enough for that tight competitive handicap. He was down to a very ordinary maiden hurdle today and while he would prefer further, everything else was in his favour. "It is brilliant for the syndicate as there are two Ballinrobe men, Damian Conway and Eoin Rowe involved, along with Leonard Kinsella, who is the Laytown connection, and has been with me a lifetime. "He'll go over fences sooner rather than later." Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
