Fran Berry has carried over his cracking form from Japan into the Irish turf season and again in the J P McManus silks he followed up his win on Iveagh Gardens at the Curragh on Sunday, by landing the opener at Dundalk on Fine Cut

First-time visored Dylan Express seemed to set a good pace in this Dundalk Stadium Racecourse Of The Year Handicap but Berry was never far away on the Tommy Stack-trained Fine Cut.

With cheek-pieces on for the first-time, Fine Cut got to the front in the final quarter mile and went on to convincingly beat the well-backed Go Placidly by five and a half lengths.

The other one for money on the track, Count Of Carabass (backed into 5/2 favourite) could do no more from under two furlongs out and ended up finishing sixth.

Berry was in the top ten riders standings in Japan when over there in January and February and has the option of returning for another month later in the year.

He reflected on Fine Cut's win: "He's been very disappointing on occasions and I made his mind up at an early stage today.

"He seemed to enjoy racing in a prominent position with his own space.

"He got a bit tired in the last hundred yards but he did it quite well."

S. Corby, rider of Shinyhappyjohn (GB), trained by J.A. Nash, reported to the Stewards' Secretaries that his mount was outpaced and never travelled in this race.(AM & EM)