Keane annexes double with King Arthurs Sword

King Arthurs Sword ran on well to grab his first career success in the Manguard Plus Handicap over 1m2f at Leopardstown.

Colin Keane did the steering and moved back into the lead in the jockey's title race with this success. He brought up a double on the card having earlier partnered Power Under Me to win the Listed Knockaire Stakes.

He drove King Arthurs Sword past Fanore close home to prevail by half a length at 7/1. The runner-up ran a fine race in second for a 28/1 shot. Each-way backers were rewarded with Nibiru (20/1) and New Moon Rising (50/1) in third and fourth respectively.

Trainer Michael O'Callaghan said: "It's been a long time coming for him. He's had his issues.

“Colin was good on him. He travelled well, the horse that was second was hard to get past but Colin said he was good going to the line.

“He's in again on Wednesday (at the Curragh) so we'll see how he is.

“He had a wind issue before and we got that done, that was stopping him. On that ground today Colin said he was perfect and he said he ran through the line strong and would go further.

“We'll probably give him a flick over hurdles again.”

Keane is now on 87 winners for the season and is one ahead of Billy Lee in the jockeys' title race.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson