Tesseract gets off the mark over flights

Three time bumper winner Tesseract got off the mark on his third start over flights, taking the Tierney Kitchens Balbriggan Maiden Hurdle.

The Joseph O'Brien trained five-year-old was fifth on his debut over hurdles at Leopardstown in December, before finishing second on his most recent start at Roscommon.

Briefly available at odds against last night, the son of Trans Island soon went odds-on, eventually going off the 4/9 market leader in the colours of owner JP McManus.

After racing in second under Barry Geraghty, he improved to lead five out, and kept up the gallop from the third last, going on to score comfortably by seven lengths. Lord Fendale (25's this morning and from 16's to 12's on-course) kept on to take second under Andrew Lynch for Steven Donohoe, while Timing'severything (5's to 4/1) was ten lengths back in third under Mark Walsh for John Kiely.

"It's grand to get that out of the way. He jumped well and learned a bit from Roscommon where he was green," said Frank Berry, racing manager to JP McManus.

"We'll try and find a winners of one for him now. The way he jumps, fences should be no problem for him and he might go chasing sooner rather than later."

Geraghty added: "He did it well but I suppose it wasn't the strongest race. His jumping was a bit untidy, and that was the main concern.

"You'd hope he learned from today, but he can jump well and then just miss one. I suppose he is a work in progress."

Additional reporting by Gary Carson