McManus triumphs with well backed Latch

Leading owner J.P. McManus bagged four Cheltenham Festival winners during the week and was successful with the heavily backed Tony Martin trained Lift The Latch under Mark Walsh, in the Cillian Buckley & Whitfield Clinic Rated Novice Hurdle at Gowran today.

Backed from 2/1 in the morning in to 4/5 at the off, the son of Beneficial made all and scored a comfortable six lengths win over Oiche Maith Boy.

Afterwards Martin stated “he’s done it well but there was not a lot of pace on.

“He handled the ground well, and has the size and stature to jump a fence. I’m not sure what we’ll do with him now and he’s probably more of a horse for winter ground.”

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Alan Magee