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 and the eventual winner was hampered at the first hurdle before being given a chance to find his feeet. The two-mile contest took another twist when the Willie Mullins-trained pair who looked set to be 1-2 came down at the final hurdle, where market leader How's Ellie and Paul Townend and brought down Boo Radley and Sean Cleary-Farrell in the process. This left the Shark Hanlon-trained Crystal Mariner in front but, under a strong drive, Jack Kennedy managed to get his mount up late to win by three and a half lengths. "I was nearly brought down at the first and ended up in no man's land," said Kennedy. "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)
