Early birds snap up De Benno

De Benno (8/1), who halved in price this morning from 20/1 to 10/1, brought home the bacon for his backers in the two mile three handicap hurdle at Cork.

Mikey Fogarty kept the eight-year-old grey gelding just off the pace and allowed him to creep into the race with four hurdles to jump.

The pair picked off 11/4 favourite Coolnagorna Giggs two out and had enough in the tank to see the job out from the former named by a length and a quarter.

Trainer James Grace said: “I renewed my licence a year ago and this is my second winner since renewing it. I used to train years ago.

“I’ve four horses in Toomevara, Co Tipperary. There’s an awful lot more pressure training than owning.

“De Benno is a problem horse, but he was right today and we fancied him. He’s in at Navan on Saturday and hopefully he’ll run there.”

From his three outings in maiden hurdles, De Benno’s best finishes were two seventh places.

Grace owned Mick The Man who was trained by Noel Meade to win the Paddy Power Champion INH Flat Race at the Punchestown Festival in April 2007.

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes