Silver King grabs gold in Punchestown

Silver King (7/1) made all and jumped well en route to victory in the novice handicap hurdle at Punchestown.

Challengers were lining up to have a crack off the home turn, but Silver King still held all the aces going to the last. He was soon challenged there by 5/1 favourite Mr Social but a mistake at the final obstacle snuffed the challenger's chances out as Silver King stayed on to beat him by three lengths. Dgalwaygallivantor (11/2) came home third without threatening the first two.

Silver King was reverting back to flights from fences and his trainer, Oliver McKiernan, said: “He fell at the first over fences here the last day. He’d a bad experience and so had Phillip (Enright, jockey)!

“We’re mad happy with that as a few of the horses weren’t going that well and we lost a few horses.

“They seem to be coming back to themselves now which is great. He’ll stay over hurdles for the moment.”

This was Silver King's breakthrough success on his 10th outing.

Additional reporting by Alan Magee