Lieutenant First at Punchestown

First Lieutenant justified odds of 1/2 in the Punchestown Event Centre Maiden Hurdle but not before giving his backers a scare. White Star Line loomed up travelling best into the straight and still had a chance when getting the last a bit wrong. From there First Lieutenant stayed on well under Andrew McNamara to score by two and a half lengths from the aforementioned promising runner-up with a fifteen length gap back to the third placed Steel Park

Not surprisingly given the way he jumps and the fact that he has already taken a point-to-point, Mouse Morris views the Gigginstown House Stud owned son of Presenting as a prospective chaser.

He said: "Next season he'll be a chaser but at the minute he is still a big baby. Two and a half or even three miles is what he wants and that ground there was probably fast enough for him.

"He couldn't do much more than he did."