Consecutive wins for costly yearling

Costly yearling Reflectionist gained consecutive wins this week when landing Limerick's Regeneron Ireland Handicap Hurdle (div I) for trainer Gavin Cromwell and jockey Sean Flanagan.

By Sea The Stars and initially bought by Godolphin for 900,000 guineas as a yearling, the six year old is now with his fifth trainer and gained a belated maiden success at Punchestown on Tuesday.

Today, under a fixed 7lb penalty, he followed up with a hard-held success having overcome traffic on the inner approaching the second-last.

Afterwards jockey Flanagan said “he is a fine big horse, was an expensive yearling and obviously people didn't think he'd end up where he did but is starting to improve a lot.”

“Coming to the second-last I could see the horse in front of me (Lilian Bland) was struggling a little bit and I thought I had plenty. If anything he has come off his line but I had loads of horse under me to get by.

“Nicer ground was a big help and I was probably riding him a bit worse than he was on his last few runs as his form had been middling. It has definitely improved his confidence from winning the last day and we could maybe take our time more with him in future.”