Bowl takes advantage of Mystery's blunder

The well-backed favourite, Military Bowl ran out a somewhat fortunate winner of the opener at Bellewstown this afternoon, the Glebe House Stud Maiden Hurdle, under Ruby Walsh for Tony Martin. Having opened at 3/1 this morning with Paddy Power, the son of Mr Greeley came in for continued support, opening on-course at just 15/8 before going off at 7/4. Things weren’t going according to plan approaching the last as the Henry De Bromhead trained Tisamystery (14/1) was still in front under Phillip Enright and he appeared to be holding the 'jolly' who was under pressure in second. However Tisamystery made a dreadful blunder at the last, losing valuable momentum and this left Military Bowl to charge up in the run-in to score by four lengths. The winning French import was making his sixth start over hurdles this afternoon and he was encountering good ground for the first time since arriving in Ireland. Tony Martin said afterwards: "I think he is a good horse although he has had a few issues. "He is owned by a great man, Bill Moffett. He has been with me for a long time and he has had good horses like Newbay Prop. "The ground was a bit quick for him today but Ruby felt that he wasn't let himself down on it and yet he can't have it soft either. "He'll be grand on a bit of nice ground and we will mix it between hurdles and the flat with him." Additional reporting by Alan Magee